Connective Era

Introduction

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Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management
Claremont Graduate University
MGT 535 – Fall 2006
Leaders & Managers in the 21st Century: E'er the Twain Shall Meet
Professor: Jean Lipman-Blumen
Assisted by: Kathie Pelletier

Blog: http://connectiveera.blogspot.com/
Authors: David Chu, Lawrence Hahn, Christy Miller, and Lucia Soh.
Project discussion group: http://groups.google.com/group/JLBCGU
Editing and Technology Server: David Chu

Welcome to our blog! This space was created as a final project in conjunction with the above referenced class at CGU. While we could have summarized our collaborative research in a final paper, we chose to use the blog format so that we could also share our learning with a wider audience and solicit feedback.

New strategies are necessary for leaders to be successful in the Connective Era where connections among people, products, and places render the old ways of doing things ineffective. Recognizing that the world has changed, it follows that we as leaders need to change in order to productively meet the new demands. Our goal is to identify ways in which institutions and individuals at various levels within the social or organizational hierarchy can confront ineffective leaders and influence the development of effective leaders in the 21st century.

Our research is sparked by Jean Lipman-Blumen’s book, “Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing World” in which she uses the term “The Connective Era” to define the context in which today’s leaders must lead. We ask two questions:
1. How can individuals influence the advancement of effective Connective Era leadership strategies?
2. What strategies can institutions use to influence the development of effective leaders in the 21st century?

Lucia directs a leadership development program for a major health provider organization, and she surveys strategies for both organizations and individuals. Christy manages a team of application software support professionals, and her focus is on individual strategies. Lawrence, a community college business teacher, left a successful architectural practice in Indonesia to further his own education in the United States. He grew up as a devoted Muslim, and he uses the status of Muslim women to demonstrate ways in which individuals and organizations can influence major shifts in cultural attitudes. David is a retired senior executive with global experience and he both presents a view of connective leadership within a global enterprise and uses the recent events in Taiwan to answer the research questions from the perspective of non-U.S. cultures.

Feel free to browse, use the links to add comments, or send us an email. We are interested in hearing your reactions to these ideas and your experience with cultivating effective leadership for the 21st Century.

Table of Contents (Hyperlinked)

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Methodology

.Connective Leadership and the Technology Server

Elements of Effective Leadership

Strategies for Individuals

Muslim Women Leadership Status in the Connective Era

Connective Leadership in the Global Environment

Conclusions

Methodology

2006-10-03T15:07:00.000-07:00

Our basic methodology is based on researching information from books, newspapers, individuals, periodicals, and the Internet. We decided to use the following connective technologies to assist us in our collaboration and knowledge sharing:

Google Groups is used as a virtual meeting room. This tool is extremely useful because team members work and have families. A virtual meeting room allows us to "meet' and discuss topics even though the participants are separated by scheduling difficulties. It is its own meeting minutes taker. And, unlike email, responses in this tool are directly linked to the parent topic so they are read in context.
Google Talk (not as good as some other such tools due to lack of a conferencing feature) is used to "talk" when we are not able to use voice communications.
Blogger is used for us to draft our report jointly so that we could minimize content overlaps and so that we could visualize the appearance of our final report as it is being developed. Additionally, we hoped that this Connective Era blog will be a "living document" that may be used by Professor Lipman-Blumen's future students and by guests to track the future progress of leadership development in the Connective Era.

.Connective Leadership and the Technology Server

2006-10-03T01:35:00.000-07:00

By David Chu

I introduced, with agreement from my teammates, information technology (IT) as an integral part of our methodology with two goals. First, in the global knowledge economy of the 21^st Century, organizations are becoming evermore dependent on information technology. My first goal was to explore how leaders in technology services may exercise their individual Achievement Styles to empower, instead of obstruct, their clienteles. Second, I believed that by integrating collaboration technologies into our methodology we would be able to work more effectively. I will leave the effectiveness assessment of the methodology to my teammates and I will describe in this section my experience as a technology server.

Concerning my first goal, I must first note that I have had significant experience as an IT service provider, having directed a global function with an annual line budget of more than $25 M that oversaw distributed operations and separate budgets in 25 countries that served clients in 180+ countries. Therefore, I observed, not without certain irony, the travails experienced by our professor that were created by, unintentionally I am certain, IT leaders who still do not get “it” (pun intended). If there is ever a profession where the leaders can benefit from acting as a servant_[1]one would expect that profession to be in services. [I will examine the “servant as leader” concept from a broader perspective and in greater depth as a topic in the main body of this report, see “Connective leadership in global enterprises.”]

While supporting my team’s efforts I noted that I was utilizing mostly the same skills that I had developed during my successful IT career. While previously my skills were exercised to provide effective service for my clients and to develop the careers of myself and my mentees, this was the first time that I had the opportunity to view myself through an analytical lens, specifically that of the Achieving Styles_[2] lens. And I must admit that it was very interesting indeed and I found that my skills have migrated over the years from the Direct to include Relational and Instrumental Styles, see figure.

While I believe that my strong Intrinsic Style (7.0) must have played a major role in my career to drive my progress in the other styles, I believe that it was not a factor in this project. I relied mainly on my equally strong Vicarious Style (7.0) and Collaborative Style (7.0). These were styles that I had nurtured while I “walked the walk and talked the talk” about collaboration and teamwork. For this project, it was even more critical that I utilize these styles. After all, the success of my team would be my success and this shared destination would be equally true in case of failure as well.

I had intentionally limited my slightly weaker but nevertheless still fairly strong Power Style (5.6). I felt that it would have been counter productive to the overall team effectiveness if I were to aspire to “take charge”_[3]. Instead, I practiced my Social Style (6.2) to seek the help of my teammates and to provide help in return_[4]. I had to push my Entrusting Style (4.4) to the limit while suppressing my Intrinsic Style impulses to do everything myself_[5]. I believe that by leaving many crucial aspects of our project completely to my teammates and by trusting them I was able to conserve some time to do my own work.

I experienced some problems that were due to having focused mostly on the Relational and Instrumental Styles. As an example, I did not leave sufficient time to work on my own contributions and as a result the quality and completeness of my own sections lag those of my teammates. Therefore, I believe that the major challenge facing the servant-leader may be to decide where to draw the line around the various Achievement Styles in order to maximize service to the clients without subjugating one's self-interest completely. After all, even a technology server must earn a decent living!

[1] Robert K. Greenleaf, "The Servant as Leader," 1970, Paulist Press.

[2] Jean Lipman-Blumen, "Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing World," 2000, Oxford University Press.

[3] ibid. p. 241, "Stage 3 leaders know when and how to harness their own egos to the group's goals"

[4] ibid. p. 211, "Social achievers think in terms of connections, who can help whom, who is the expert on a certain issue, or is that expert's expert."

[5] ibid. p. 150, "Leaders overly devoted to self-reliance also may forego needed help even when the task exceeds the capabilities of a single, albeit outstanding, individual."

Elements of Effective Leadership

2006-09-28T22:57:00.000-07:00

By Lucia Soh

If there are two issues that remain at the top of the executive agenda, they are leadership and leadership development. Irrespective of company, industry, and country, and regardless of cyclical fluctuations between economic expansion and contraction, organizations require effective leaders to move forward. Unfortunately, the near universal agreement about the importance of leadership development is not matched by a universal understanding of what to focus on and how to develop leaders. The focus of this paper will be on what current leaders consider to be important areas of leadership competency and what individuals can do to demonstrate effectiveness in their workplace. Another area of focus will be on what is missing from the organizational viewpoint and what individuals and organizations can do to incorporate the additional competencies to be ready for the future.

..Today's corporate perspective on what to focus on

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In a study conducted by the Corporate Leadership Council, 2001 Leadership Survey, asked 15,000 leaders their opinions about the elements of effective leadership and what drives effective leadership for the 21st century manager. Out of the 15,000 surveyed, 8,051 people responded and four important categories emerged. They are 1) People Management 2) Personal Characteristics 3) Process Management 4) Strategic Management.

People Management: The skills and attributed associated with leading through others, such as clearly communicating expectations, inspiring others and holding people accountable.

Personal Characteristics: A diverse set of characteristics and attributes associated with individuals, personal leadership such as confidence, intelligence and perseverance.

Process Management: The skills and attributes required to successfully manage an organization on a day to day basis, such as creatively solving problems, measuring results and properly managing budgets timelinessines.

Strategic Management: The skills and attributes necessary to successfully devise and execute strategy and vision, such as identifying and articulating a long term vision, understand the external conditions and assessing risks and return of decisions.

The respondents rated People Management as the most important category at nearly 30% and included skills such as recognizing and rewarding achievement, inspiring others, putting the right people in the right roles at the right time, persuading and encouraging others to move in a desired direction, correctly evaluating the potential in others and having strong commitment to diversity. Strategic Management came in second in importance at 21%, Personal Characteristics at 17% and Process Management at 16%. The survey noted that as a subset of People Management, 61 percent of the leaders agreed honesty and integrity were the most important single attribute of effective leadership. So, how does the corporate perception of effective leadership skills compare to what we know of great leaders from the past and where we need to go for the future?

..What's missing from the organizational viewpoint?

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Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, observed similar attributes in his research on how leaders succeeded in working with others during the 20th century. He coined it as the 5 Levels of Leadership. Most leaders used levels 1 to 4 but the leaders that led organizations successfully through turbulent times exhibited an additional level. At Level 1, a highly capable individual used good personal work habits, made personal productive contribution and leveraged their own talent, knowledge and skills in the workplace. At Level 2, the individual worked effectively with others in a group setting. The individual moved to Level 3 when he starts organizing people and resources to meet objectives of the organization. This is also known as basic managerial competence. Level 4 leaders are distinguished by their ability to influence and move people to a clear and compelling vision. They can also stimulate others to higher performance standards. This is the traditional definition of effective leadership. As the Corporate Leadership Council study showed, most organizations develop leaders up to level 4 and have a belief that they are the key elements to success. However, through the empirical research, Collins discovered an additional dimension. He saw only 11 individuals exhibiting this dimension out of the 1,435 Fortune 500 companies his team looked at. These leaders went beyond the basic 4 levels and moved into level 5.

Level 5 leaders possess the skills of levels 1 to 4 but also have an "extra dimension": a paradoxical blend of personal humility and professional will. They are somewhat self-effacing individuals who deflect adulation, yet who have an almost stoic resolve to do absolutely whatever it takes to make the company great, channeling their ego needs away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great company. It' not that Level 5 leaders have no ego or self-interest. Indeed, they are incredibly ambitious - but their ambition is first and foremost for the institution and its greatness, not for themselves.1

Level 5 leaders wanted to see the company even more successful in the future and were comfortable with the idea that they may not get credit for their efforts to move the organization to a higher state.

In addition, Jean Lipman-Blumen's Achieving Styles Model categorized 9 areas leaders depend on to get things done. Like the Level 1 and 2 leaders, one needs to master their own tasks by using a direct approach. This can be done through the competitive style and also through using power and taking charge of situations. For some leaders, the motivation to get things done was strongly driven by their sense of intrinsic rewards. Level 5 leaders are most likely to have a strong intrinsic style as mentioned by Jim Collins and their non-essential need to have public recognition. As individuals advanced to Level 3 of team leadership, there are clear preferences on how each person behaves in working with others. Lipman-Blumen discusses how leaders may use the contributory, collaboration and/or vicarious styles to accomplish this. When this set of skills is being used, the leaders are identifying with their team and team goals as being the most important. Level 3 and 4 leaders use the relational path on a regular basis since they must depend on others to get the work done. In order to maximize commitment with others in an interdependent world, leaders will also need to consider the usage of the instrumental styles. It includes the entrusting, social and personal styles and focuses not only on the individual, but bringing together talents of people together through influence and relationships. Dominant and recessive uses of all the styles are based on ones personal background and experience with success and failure in past situations. Both Collins and Lipmen-Blumen believe all the skills can be learned or relearned and will help a person achieve greater success when used at the appropriate times.

..What individuals should consider and become a level 5 leader in a Connective Era

2006-09-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

It is important that individuals find ways of developing their own competencies in order to be ready for leadership roles as defined by today's leaders. It is also equally important to look within yourself and identify ways to become a Level 5 leader. This will give an individual the competitive edge to becoming a successful leader for the future.

Know where you are and where you need to go:
In order to make changes, an individual must know the current behavior and what the desired behaviors are. Some organizations make available to leaders 360 degree feedback surveys to show areas of strengths and weaknesses. These types of instruments, when administered and discussed properly can be beneficial. However, in most organizations, the instruments are delivered without a strategy for action planning and support to make changes. The organization is often not clear on what desired behavior should be. Also, if an individual is not prepared to receive the feedback as neutral information, they can become defensive and justify their current action without making new behavior changes. Other ways one can get information about current behavior is through a colleague or mentor. Find an individual who is trustworthy and can provide worthwhile insights on your current behavior patterns and the impact on others. Regardless of how one is receiving the information, it is important to prepare for the different range of responses and how others perceive you as the leader. Do your own research to discover other attributes that may be missing. Consider using multiple assessments with different elements to determine your current level. Once the current behaviors are clear, the new behaviors goals will need to be set.

Examine your attitude:
Once you figure out the gap to the new leadership behavior, you should examine the willingness or desire to change. If the desire is not present, no sustainable change will occur. The emotional aspect will make a difference on whether or not you can become a Connective or a Level 5 leader. If the desire is present, you will look for opportunities to try the new skills. If not, you will find excuses not to participate. A positive change can only come from the inside.

Get help and feedback on a regular basis:
Another gap in making changes is the lack of support and reinforcement of new behaviors. If the leader moves to the next stage and decides to try new skills, a strong system must be in place to sustain the change. The support system could be made up of mentors, colleagues, bosses or even the direct report. The role of these individuals is to give feedback. Level 5 leaders show humility and honesty about what they don't know and increase their relationship with others.

..What should organizations pay attention to?

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Organizations should pay attention to the following if it wants to increase the number of people who can lead effectively.

Set up Level 5 leadership culture and promote people when they demonstrate the behavior: Put leaders into positions when they demonstrate ambition for the cause, the organization and the work, not for self. Look for leaders that make decisions for the organization to succeed for the long term. Consistently ask leaders to use the mirror approach of looking at self when errors are made and the window approach of looking out when results are positive.

Provide opportunities for experimenting:
Individuals need to feel save to try new things. If people are not given the chance to try new ways of doing things, they will continue doing it the old ways while expecting new results. Reward individuals for trying, not for the results. Reward for trying new processes, not the results. Reward for working differently, not the results.

Provide structures of support:
Establish a systematic way for individuals to seek out feedback and reinforcement from others. Build a community where leaders can learn from each other. The connective era is about making connections to work differently and learn about each other. This type of network can help people reach out globally if established and supported by the organization.

..References

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1"The Misguided Mix-Up of Celebrity and Leadership" by Jim Collins
Conference Board Annual Report, Annual Feature Essay, September/October 2001

"2001 Leadership Survey", Corporate Leadership Council

Collins, Jim (2001), Good to Great -Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't, New York: Harper Collins

Lipman-Blumen, J., (1996). Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing Word. New York: Oxford University Press

Strategies for Individuals

2006-09-26T18:00:00.000-07:00

by Christy Miller

..My connection to this blog.

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This past summer I (third from left), along with several hundred relatives, celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Miller family homestead in northwestern North Dakota. The festivities included recognition of 100 years of family farming as 4th and 5th generation pioneers still derive their livelihoods from reaping harvests of amber waves of grain. Nevertheless, time has not stood still. Fewer family members than ever can make a decent living at this vocation—not many have survived. Well-run corporate farms added competitive pressures, and although science and technology have increased long-term productivity, these advances required significant capital investment thereby shrinking short-term profitability. I see in my farmer relatives the attributes that keep this legacy going: a readiness to embrace new technology, a willingness to save today to invest in tomorrow’s successes or prepare for future failures, a deep pride and joy in the work itself, and a love for the family for whom the fruits of their labor provide.

I, on the other hand, discovered my calling in the corporate workplace but my journey has been built on the foundation of lessons learned from farming. It takes the system to produce good results--tools, technology, know-how, weather, soil, seed, fertilizer and pest control. You control the things you can, and do what you can to mitigate the ones you can’t. You don’t lose sight of the impact each has upon the other. Some days you have to work longer than others, but that’s okay because you really believe that work is good and that you are doing something that will make a difference beyond your contribution.

It is a pleasure to connect my story with those of my Drucker classmates, David, Lawrence, and Lucia, on this blog. Together we are learning to both practice and influence authentic, purposeful leadership in the 21st Century. As noted in the introduction, our research is inspired by Jean Lipman-Bluman’s book, “Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing World”. She uses the term “The Connective Era” to define the emergence of a new context in which today’s leaders must lead.

In summary, Lipman-Blumen says that science and technology, increasing internationalism, diversity, lost faith in ideology, institutions and leaders, changes in organizational structures, and new plagues are factors that contribute to the need for new strategies to help us face the realities of our increasingly “connected” world. Complexity and rate of change demand a fresh approach to developing innovative solutions, and no one person can possibly have all of the answers. As we wrestle with the competing forces of diversity and interdependence, Lipman-Blumen hypothesizes that leaders must abandon their simple charismatic or command and control styles and draw from a richer basket of direct, relational, and instrumental styles of behavior in order to effectively lead in the 21st Century. They need to be accountable not only by taking responsibility for their actions but also by explaining them. They must cultivate authenticity so that when different situations demand a different leadership behavior, constituents will not see these actions as “mixed messages” but rather the action that was required in the situation at hand in order to achieve the group’s shared goals.

Lipman-Blumen’s seminal book was published in 1996, and yet today, ten years later, we still wonder where all the good leaders are. We read stories such as that of Max DePree, and while we are appropriately inspired by the apparent work-as-utopia he built at Herman Miller, it just doesn’t seem real. We ask ourselves why these behaviors have not gained traction and why so few of us seem to be a part of organizations that recognize and reward these cutting-edge styles that are required for success in the Connective Era. We shake our heads in disgust and mutter something about it having to start at the top—and it just isn’t.

So that is what causes us to ask our questions. My contribution focuses on the first one. I’m curious to learn how individuals can influence the advancement of Connective Era strategies. I suspect that the key to individual strategies lies in the words accountability and authenticity, and I intend to keep that focal point in mind in subsequent postings. I will share my image of leadership, then explore why this change is so hard, suggest ways of leading up, advise on building trust, and finally show how you can practice leading in all domains of life.

Personally I am nearing the end of a journey of learning at the Drucker School, and the words of my father at the beginning of the program are echoing in my middle-aged ears. Upon hearing the news of my enrollment, he asked, “Well, what are you going to do with that when you’re done?” I hope to help answer that question with what follows in this blog. At the same time I expect to provide the reader with ideas on how they, too, can make a difference in the Connective Era.

Lipman-Blumen, Jean. (1996). Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing World New York: Oxford University Press

Depree, Max. (1989). Leadership is an Art New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group

..Images of Leadership

2006-09-26T16:00:00.000-07:00

In researching for this project, I was intrigued by the Images of Leadership project sponsored by Wharton College’s undergraduate leadership program. Before starting their Management 100 class, students are asked to select or design an image that represents their idea of leadership accompanied by a 100-word essay on why they chose that image.

It was a challenge to limit this to 100 words, but here is my essay and image. It will help you understand what I think we need to achieve.

“Effective leaders are instruments who stitch together diverse talents in order to ensure valuable outcomes In fact, leadership is a lot like a needle. Starting with a vision, it assembles the necessary components: the pattern for guiding, the scissor for cutting, the thread for binding, the thimble for protection, the tape measure for careful construction, the fabric for show, and the hand of the tailor for execution. Leading the way, the needle pokes through the layers of fiber. Sometimes this hurts. Finally the needle moves aside to reveal and recognize the beauty of all the contributors in the finished product.”

Reference
Ghandi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, a Tree, Pillow…Images of Leadership from Future Leaders
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1417

Microsoft Clip Art Image

..Why is this change so difficult?

2006-09-26T15:00:00.000-07:00

Both our brains (logic) and our hearts (emotion) tell us that authoritarian leadership should be buried and replaced with a more participative style. Yet when push comes to shove, competitive pressures often cause us to react in known ways in which we feel more comfortable in predicting the outcome.

Gerard Fairtlough describes three ways of getting things done in organizations: hierarchy, heterarchy, and responsible autonomy. Responsible autonomy is the highest organizational achieving style for which to strive. The problem, he argues, is that the command and control hierarchy style “is so entrenched that a complete replacement, if it does prove desirable, will take centuries.” (92)

A recent article in CIO magazine cites recent brain research that provides scientific evidence that change is painful both psychologically and physiologically. So now we know that breaking the bonds of habit not only requires a change in our long-trusted behavior, it has been proven to cause physical discomfort precisely because of the way our brain is wired!

So should we give up now? Of course not! Fairtlough suggests four guiding principles. First, we need to understand the grip of hierarchy and what the alternatives are so that we can move more confidently towards a new way of getting things done. Second, we need innovation in the form of imagination, experimentation, and persistence so that we can discover these new ways of getting things done. Third, we need balance by paying attention to all requirements of the organization including system, culture, leadership and power. Fourth, we need courage because “downgrading hierarchy will nearly always mean upsetting powerful people. This takes guts.” (92, 93)

The CIO article goes on to say that brain scans also indicate that helping people come to terms in their own way with the necessary changes pays big dividends in the acceptance of the new behavior. But this takes a tremendous amount of patience on the part of the teacher/leader precisely because we are so complex and so individual. The article recommends painting a broad picture of the change, leaving some gaps, allowing people to fill the space and make the connections on their own.

So research by behavioral and physical scientists indicates that the change we seek is possible—although it may take more time and require a more focused effort on our part. There is another reason to be hopeful, and that is the next generation. The Wharton “Images of Leadership” project indicates that next-generation business students “are all idealistic, without a question” in proposing an image of leadership that is transformational at its core. The researchers ponder whether they are looking into the world and finding these positive images, or if they are images that the students themselves aspire to. I would like to suggest that any incremental change we can introduce in the workplace now will provide fertile ground in which to plant these new leaders who will be better equipped to reinforce and continue the innovation.

Someone once said, “Habit is a great debtor”. If you’re willing to pay the price, stay with us on this post for more practical ways you can influence the advancement of effective connective era leaders.

References
Fairtlough, Gerard. (2005). The Three Ways of Getting Things Done: Hierarchy, Heterarchy, & Responsible Autonomy in Organization Dorset, UK: Triarchy Press

Ghandi, Mandela, Mother Teresa, a Tree, Pillow…Images of Leadership from Future Leaders
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=1417

The New Science of Change
http://www.cio.com/archive/091506/change.html

Microsoft Clip Art Image

..A Moment for Peter Drucker

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I turned to "The Essential Drucker" to glean some advice from the management guru himself before embarking on this “change the game of leadership” adventure. Sure enough, Peter Drucker provides a laser-sharp response to the question of “how can I make a difference” in chapter 15 entitled, “Focus on Contribution”.

Drucker says that the effective person focuses on contribution with a stress on responsibility. An effective person turns the attention away from his or her own specialty and toward the performance of the whole. An effective person recognizes the value of the contributions of others. Furthermore, an effective person understands that the value of his or her own work is constrained by the needs, the directions, the limitations, and the perceptions of others. Effective persons therefore focus on their contributions while working on developing relationships with others. Productive relationships produce results and accomplishments for all concerned.

How does this translate into a strategy for influencing ineffective leaders? Surely the individual who views the performance of the whole first before focusing on their own contribution will be in a better position to influence their manager. Know your business. Know yourself. Know what you can do. Understand the connections, and focus on results. I’ll explore these tactics in more depth in the “leading up” post.

Reference:
Drucker, Peter F. (2001). The Essential Drucker New York: Harper Collins Books

..It's time to play ball!

2006-09-26T13:00:00.000-07:00

One of my lesser-used achieving styles is competitiveness. While I doubt that the spirit of competition will lead us to the next level of effective leadership in the world, there are lessons that someone like me needs to learn from this approach.

I can be an avid baseball fan during playoff season, and I am especially excited this year because “my team”, the Los Angeles Dodgers, has emerged as one of the contenders for the title of world champion. As we move towards post-season play, I hear the language of competitiveness used more and more often, and I notice how people are inspired and moved by this possibility of winning. So in an effort to connect with this energy, I am going to continue this discussion using baseball wisdom articulated by Yogi Berra to illustrate the concepts of leading up, building trust, and learning to lead in all domains of life in order to improve leadership effectiveness.

..What difference does the uniform make?

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You don’t hit with it.

That’s what Yogi Berra says, and I think it is a fitting introduction to a discussion on leading up. In the past, we talked about “managing up”. Career coaching advice from the website Monster.com describes managing up as “focusing on the relationship with your boss to obtain the best results for you, your boss, and your organization”. Unfortunately an ineffective leader often negatively redirects our focus from the leader-follower relationship towards the ineptitude of the boss and both results and careers suffer. But John Gardner strikes back with “If a bad leader rules because of our lethargy, we are collaborators. The fault is not in our stars.” (71). In today’s world, we must learn to strike back by leading up. Leading up requires a commitment to becoming what Robert Kelley describes as an “effective follower”. He says that effective followers are “well-balanced and responsible adults who can succeed without strong leadership.” If we are truly interested in contributing to purposeful work, then whether we don the uniform of leader or follower, we can score the runs necessary to obtain the best results for our managers, our organizations, and ourselves.

Nevertheless, both managing up and leading up refer to the ability to consciously work with your boss to achieve organizational objectives. Leading up differs in that it requires more attention to those attributes that are usually assigned to the boss. According to a Harvard Management Update, the essential attributes of a leader include who you are, what you know, and how you interact with people. Do you have a reputation for results-oriented work and integrity? Do you have your facts straight? The article reminds us that people lacking in information rarely are acknowledged as leaders. Do you propose alternatives, solicit input, and leave space for others to willingly cooperate? If you can answer yes to these questions, you are already modeling effective leadership strategies.

One of the keys to effective leading up is to recognize that your boss needs your support. The goal should not be to usurp his or her authority, but rather to seek solutions that enable each of you to contribute in the most productive way. A review of the literature reveals three communication scenarios in which you can learn techniques that will improve the relationship and build trust between you and your boss. First, there is the “art” of asking the right questions. Second, you need to learn how to get bad news to the top. And third, the most difficult, is saying no to a “yes man".

According to Robert Ramsey, effective people “not only ask the right questions, they ask the right people, ask at the right time, and keep asking until they get good answers”. His coaching seems to indicate that clarity and persistence are the secrets that unveil the mystery and unlock the potential. Ramsey proposes simple guidelines to make it easier to ask the right questions in the most effective way of which I share a few here. Number one on his list is don’t ask if you don’t want to know. Conversely, be prepared to act on answers to the questions you choose to ask. Ask questions as soon as you need to know—don’t wait for the dynamics to change. Be clear, succinct, and to-the-point. Don’t hesitate to keep asking if the answers are unclear or incomplete. When questioning your boss, I would add that you should also be willing to share what you know. Keeping you boss informed ensures the smooth flow of information and knowledge both ways.

Steve Kirsner suggests that a lot of bad press lately has resulted from leaders who ignore bad news until it becomes worse. Confronting your boss with bad news is an important duty that effective followers should not neglect. Make it real, keep it real, build coalitions, don’t point fingers, and propose a solution are tips that the magazine’s panel of experts offers on delivering bad news in such a way that your boss will be encouraged to do something. In other words, get your facts straight, but don’t exaggerate. Use your connections to show that others can validate your views. Share ownership of the problem, and lead up by offering potential solutions to the problem. I would add that you should also be prepared to listen to the response from your boss. Listening, according to Robert Greenfield, builds strength in other people. (437) This openness to feedback is another way to illicit trust between you and your boss.

Some of us will inevitably have the unfortunate experience of reporting to a boss who is best described as a “yes man”. Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Jared Sandberg describes this person as someone “…so full of follow that they can’t lead. They head up the corporate ladder because their agreeability is in direct proportion to their lust for power.” He says that we often find it impossible to say “no” to a “yes man” because of the swift rebuttal that we don’t get either “it” or the “big picture” or we are accused of not being a team player. Don’t disappoint yourself by becoming the worst of the worst – a “yes man’s yes man”. The point is that while you might think you are preserving the relationship by saying yes, in fact you are ultimately undermining it. The article suggests strategies that effective followers can use to confront this behavior. First, you can try to reason with the facts. Second, you can attempt to implement the best of the bad alternatives. Third, you can say yes but perform the task slowly and incompetently. While none of these strategies are as satisfying as performing productive work, they may eventually help change the leadership behavior that perpetuates this style.

So if you can’t hit with it, just what difference does the uniform make? Pierce suggests that they are equal but different activities and that both roles are needed and should be encouraged. I agree that leveling the playing field could reap positive benefits for the organization. In the meantime, this posting has concentrated on effective followers who as responsible self-managed individuals can lead up by using communication techniques to build trust and influence the desired behavior of 21st century leaders.

References
http://management.monster.com/articles/managingup/
Managing Up: An Overlooked Factor in Career Success Joanne Murray

Gardner, John W. (1990). On Leadership New York: The Free Press

Kelley, Robert E. “In Praise of Followers” Harvard Business Review, November-December 1988: 1-8.

“How to Lead When You’re Not the Boss” Harvard Management Update, March 2000

“the art of asking the right questions”
Robert D Ramsey. SuperVision. Burlington:Feb 2006. Vol. 67, Iss. 2, p. 3-5 (3 pp.)

“How to Get Bad News to the Top”
Scott Kirsner. Fast Company. August:2002 Iss. 62, p. 56

Vecchio, Robert P., Editor (1997). Leadership: Understanding the Dynamics of Power and Influence in Organization Notre Dame, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press
The Servant As Leader – Robert K. Greenleaf

“How Do You Say No to a Yes Man? Often Unsuccessfully”
Jared Sandberg. Wall Street Journal. (Eastern Edition). New York, N.Y.:Jul 25, 2006. p. B.1

Microsoft Clip Art Image

..You can observe a lot just by watching.

2006-09-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

While at first this sounds like a redundant statement, this Yogi Berra quote ends up resonating with the second point I want to make about how individuals can influence the advancement of Connective Era leadership strategies. Just as I imagine my needle joining together a diverse set of components in order to produce results, connective leaders recognize that they don’t have all of the answers. They must, as Max DePree suggests, “endorse a concept of persons” and rely on a diversity of people’s talents, gifts, and skills. The first responsibility of a leader, DePree says, is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. (9) This posting focuses on the thank you—an action that requires watching in order to observe those moments that deserve recognition and reinforcing.

One of the frustrations of today’s leaders is that followers aren’t accountable. They are happy with as little responsibility as possible. Intuitively my values lead me to believe otherwise--that people want to do to good and want to be responsible for a part of some purpose that is bigger and more important than them alone. Even if I am not positioned at the top of the organization, I can use the tools at my disposal to help build a more enlightened workforce that is then likely to arouse trust from the current leadership and carry on the tradition of effective leadership. A survey of the literature affirms the powerful, reinforcing, and trust-inspiring benefits of saying thank you.

The Encarta World English Dictionary defines grace as “dignified, polite and decent behavior”. Building on that definition, Erik de Nijs proposes the GRACE acronym for work. He says that in today’s world, vital leadership is one based on powerful, purposeful, and productive relationships of trust and transparency between leaders and followers. His GRACE model includes five key components: goodwill, results, authenticity, connectivity, and empowerment. Goodwill assumes positive intent, and results include both the reason and the result. Authenticity means being honest, while connectivity refers to finding ways to identify with, affirm, and encourage the other person. Empowerment is about helping others succeed. While de Nijs believes it takes all five components to succeed, his definition of connectivity is most closely aligned with the mandate to say thank you. It requires empathy towards the other person, understanding what is important to them, and communicating a genuine desire to relate to them. The lesson here is to get to know your constituents so that when it comes time to recognize them you can reward them with something that is truly meaningful to them.

Tom Gegax takes a similar approach to building an enlightened workforce. He believes that people will look forward to coming to work when they believe that their work contributes directly to the team’s success. Employees, he says, are like plants that must be rooted in a nurturing environment in order to bloom and thrive. His multi-point plan for cultivating this environment includes handing out “all-access passes” so that constituents know that you are available when they need you. He says that attention spent on employee concerns is reciprocated with appreciation that shows up in the simple metrics of productivity and turnover. His experience proves that thank you’s can flow both up and down the organization.

Noelle Nelson reminds us that the number one reason people leave their jobs is lack of appreciation. “People quit first because they don’t feel appreciated.” The dictionary prompts us with three definitions for appreciation: “the recognition of the good qualities of someone or something”, “a full understanding of a situation”, and “an increase in monetary value”. Saying thank you encompasses all three meanings. Nelson proposes five ways to appreciate. The first is to adopt an appreciative focus in which you actively search for value or worth in every person. The second is to problem-solve with appreciation soliciting input and advice from employees. The third strategy is to catch employees in the act of doing something right. The fourth is to create a culture of appreciation by collecting stories of work done well. The fifth is to lead by example.

My company pushes the idea of engaging employees, and a major component of that initiative is the reward program. I am sometimes annoyed by the monthly email from HR asking me to recount my previous month’s recognition and reward activities because often times it feels like I’m simply contributing to another metric. On the other hand, I must admit that I appreciate the regular reminder. As a middle manager, I need to be held accountable for increasing the value of my team by regularly immersing them in praise for their contributions to organizational goals. I represent management to my team, and as a result I am in a unique position. I can observe a lot by watching, and by watching I can recognize and reward those behaviors that will lead to increased follower accountability. Increased follower accountability increases leader appreciation increases follower accountability increases leader appreciation and so forth. Most important, thoughtful observers and watchers will notice that trust is building and growing with each cycle of feedback.

References
Depree, Max. (1989). Leadership is an Art New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group

“GRACE at Work”
Eric de Nijs. T + D. Alexandria:Mar 2006. Vol. 60, Iss. 3, p. 47-49,6 (4 pp.)

“Relationship Management: Create An Enlightened Work Environment And Reap The Rewards From Your Employees”
Tom Gegax, Don Grimme. Business Credit. New York:Apr 2006. Vol. 108, Iss. 4, p. 65-67 (3 pp.)

“Culture of Appreciation”
Noelle Nelson. Leadership Excellence. Provo:Aug 2006. Vol. 23, Iss. 8, p. 11-12 (2 pp.)

Microsoft Clip Art Image

..You can't think and hit at the same time.

2006-09-26T10:00:00.000-07:00

This Yogi Berra witticism points out the fact that using effective strategies requires practice. Practice is what enables us to take the right action at the appointed time. In this posting, I suggest that individuals can influence the advancement of Connective Era leadership by practicing the new more effective leadership behaviors in all domains of life. Ricardo Semler, CEO of Semco S.A. reminds us that “Outside the factory, workers are men and women who elect governments, serve in the army, lead community projects, raise and educate families, and make decisions every day about the future. Friends solicit their advice. Salespeople court them. Children and grandchildren look up to them for their wisdom and experience. (5)” Certainly we have opportunities within our families and communities to practice effective leadership.

Back to Peter Drucker. He insists that, “Successful careers are not “planned.” They are the careers of people who are prepared for the opportunity because they know their strengths, the way they work and their values.” (180) Stewart Friedman uses a program called total leadership to help people align their values with their actions. Instead of work-life balance, his approach promotes work-life integration. Performance and results are still the primary objective, but they are informed by the three key principles of clarifying what is important, recognizing and supporting the whole person, and continually experimenting with how things are done.

Friedman says that clarifying what is important includes among other actions being able to choose what matters most, to communicate your story, and to pursue accountability.

• Family: I believe in connecting with my family, so it is important to me that we join together for dinner each evening in order to catch up with the events of the day.
• Community: I have held leadership positions in my church community. I choose worship over golf on Sunday mornings because I believe in the need to nourish and heal my soul, to visibly demonstrate my commitment, and to affirm the responsibility to join with other believers in pursuit of our mutual goals.
• Work: Translating this behavior into the workplace, I recognize that sometimes we should have meetings if for no other reason than to collectively affirm our values, get to know one another better, and stay on course.

Friedman’s second principle, recognizing and respecting the whole person, requires taking responsibility for building networks of trust, communicating expectations, transferring skills across domains, and managing the boundaries and transitions.

• Family: In sharing a dual-career household, we have learned to trust the abilities of one another in areas as diverse as cooking, cleaning, finance, and doing the laundry. At the same time we give each other space to develop our physical and spiritual selves.
• Community: I have found a more highly developed openness to the diversity of gifts in the church community such that we are more likely to recognize that we can’t do it all by ourselves.
• Work: I carry both of these experiences into the workplace where it becomes easier for me to care for and recognize both the contributions and the diversity of my co-workers.

The third principle, continually experimenting with how goals are achieved, can further be described as the ability to question assumptions and fostering a learning environment.

• Family: We live this principle in our household where we have studied French, cooking, art, philosophy, and business together and separately over the past several years. This led to a mid-career MFA for my husband and an EMBA for myself. These formal studies have not only taught us to support and reciprocate each other’s needs and desires for learning but also to acknowledge and accept our passion for finding new ways of expressing ourselves.
• Community: My church community fosters life-long learning programs that range from caring for impressionable tiny tots to teaching seniors already full of life experience. I also serve in an advisory capacity on the Property and Finance committee, and while I am happy to connect past precedent with present realities, I am also open to encouraging new ways of doing things in order to further the mission into the future.
• Work: Turning to the workplace, modeling this capacity for change can be a powerful influencing factor if the energy is channeled towards effective, flexible leadership focused on results.

Friedman comments “practice and discipline are needed to learn how to stay focused while moving rapidly and diplomatically from one domain to another” (1279) while Berra says you can’t think and hit at the same time. Reflecting on my experience has given me more confidence that individuals can influence the advancement of 21st Century leadership. You must be willing to use every opportunity to enhance your leadership style so that you can connect your practice with performance and results with authenticity in all domains of your life.

References
Semler, Ricardo. “Managing Without Managers” Harvard Business Review, September 1, 1989

Drucker, Peter F. (1999). Managing in the 21st Century New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

“Learning to Lead in All Domains of Life”
Stewart D Friedman. The American Behavioral Scientist. Thousand Oaks:May 2006. Vol. 49, Iss. 9, p. 1270-1297 (28 pp.)

Microsoft Clip Art Photo

..Don't give me the answer. Give me the question.

2006-09-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Inspired again by the cleverness of Yogi Berra, I recognize that there is not a magic formulary of answers that will quickly transform the leaders of the world. However, I trust that these musings have encouraged you and provided you with some practical advice on how you can improve leadership effectiveness in the 21st century even if you are not at the top of your organization. I conclude then with this baseball-season, dinner-table conversation and leave you with a question.

Of the two of us, my husband is the most passionate Dodger fan. He was enthusiastically describing the roles of the relief pitchers and pinch hitters over dinner one evening last week. He reminded me that those players on the bench don’t just come to watch the game. Instead, they are studying the players so that they can identify how they themselves would have to change in order to confront the different hitting or pitching styles of the opposing team. If they get a chance to play, the bench should be mentally ready to face their competitors so that they can make the most valuable contribution to their team. This is not to say that they conform to the opposing team’s style but rather that they transform what had been an effective strategy in previous innings into winning plays for their team.

This is good advice for middle managers and other followers out there—will you be ready if you are called off the bench? Authenticity and accountability require self-reflection, openness to change, courage, and practice. Will you be ready to play ball?

Muslim Women Leadership Status in the Connective Era

2006-09-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

By Lawrence Hahn

As Lucia and Christy had mentioned, one of the key points that individuals and organizations should understand about leadership in the Connective Era is the willingness to change. The Connective Era requires different behaviors and mind sets. We understand that it is very hard to accomplish a change in the behavior and mindset of people but it is a necessity to be successful in the Connective Era.

Religion is one of the areas that I want to explore more because of its nature. Any religion does not like to change. It can take hundreds of years in all religions including Islam to change. Islam is one of the world major religions that I am very familiar with. Currently, Islam has negative connotations because of their ‘negative behaviors,’ such as its ‘permissive behaviors toward terrorism.’ People have strong arguments against or for the behaviors. The Muslim world denies it and the western world for it. In this blog, I want the readers understand some of the reasons why Muslims behave in certain ways, especially toward women. I focus on Muslim women because of the western’s views toward them.

The leadership role of women in the Muslim world is questionable. Most westerners would argue that it does not exist. Yet, the Muslim world claims that women play an important role. This short blog examines the status of women’s leadership in the Muslim world in the Connective Era. The blog is based on my experiences growing up as an Indonesian Muslim. Generally Indonesian Muslims have a relax attitude toward Islam. This essay shall show the dilemmas and the opportunities for Muslim women in general to be a leader in the Connective Era. It shall also show how individuals influence the advancement of Muslim women in the Connective Era and what strategies that organizations can do in the development of Muslim women leadership in the 21st century.

..The Afghanistan Illustration

2006-09-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

Safia Ana Jan was killed on September 25, 2006. She served as chief of the Woman Affairs department in the Kandahar province Afghanistan for five years. According to Taliban leader Mullah Hayat Kha anyone who works for the current Afghanistan government including women will be killed (Afghan, 2006). I think she was targeted to be killed because of her gender and her work. There are many men who work for the current Afghanistan government and the Taliban does not go after them. If they are really going after those men, we would have heard about it.

The Taliban lost control of power in Afghanistan when U.S. troops invaded the country. They can no longer influence any outcome of the Afghanistan government activities. This increases the uncertainty of the role the Taliban play in Afghanistan society. Because of this the Taliban gets anxious therefore the leaders are willing to do anything to reduce the anxiety level of the organization. Terror is one of the means. At the political level, the Taliban is no longer able to use their interpretation of Islamic laws in the daily life of the Afghani. The Taliban, for example cannot tell the Afghanis that they cannot educate their daughters and whip them for disobeying the order. Afghani women have started asking for their rights. They voted in the election. All of these are too much and too soon for the Taliban. They want the status quo.

The Taliban also lost another important factor when they lost power. As an organization, the Taliban lost most of the control over available resources. Without enough resources, they cannot run the organization effectively.

..The Western Point of View

2006-09-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

From westerners’ point of view, Muslim women have almost no rights whatsoever. By western standard especially the U.S standard, Muslim women live in a Stone Age era. Nevertheless, if we examine carefully, the rights that women have in the U.S., we find that they are relatively new. For example, in the U.S. women began to vote nationally after the 19th amendment was signed into law in 1920 after a long struggle since 1807 when New Jersey granted women the right to vote in its constitution. The U.S. never has had a female president while Benazir Bhuto was a female Pakistan Prime Minister. Indonesia with the largest Muslim population in the world had Megawati Sukarnoputri as their female president. The Taliban or other Muslim leaderships would point out the same facts if they are asked about the unfair treatments of Muslim women.

..Women Leadership Role in Islam

2006-09-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

What I would argue to the Taliban or other Muslim leaderships is the fact that there is a possibility of change in women’s rights in the U.S. There is a separation between the state and the church. Therefore the religious belief system should not interfere with the activities of the government, as Christian right wing fundamentalists would love everybody to believe. Human rights in general and especially women’s rights in western society keep changing for the better.

I do not think that the Taliban and its leaders would agree with me in the idea that women with the same rights as men are good for the society. They would say “Because it is against the Quran or it is against the Hadith and it is against God” (It sounds familiar doesn’t it?). The Quran is source of the highest laws in Islam followed by the Haditth. Quran is from God and Hadith is from the Prophet Muhammad. In Islam, women are expected to follow orders from their husbands, the eldest male or a male in the family if they want to go to heaven. Without the male blessings, the women are going to hell. The women eternal destiny is in the hand of the males. The males own them. When they are single, they belong to the father or their eldest brother. After marriage, they belong to their husband. The women should never argue with their father or their eldest brother if she wants to go to heaven. Blessings from Muslim men to the women are considered God’s blessings. The women can ‘discuss’ a matter with the males but should never argue against them let alone lead the males.

..Muslims and Islamic Rules

2006-09-24T06:00:00.000-07:00

A Muslim (it means a good Islamic person) must obey the rules imposed by the religion. If you are just a follower, you are not allowed to interpret any of the rules. You can think about the rules but you cannot interpret it. Only the religious leaders have the authority to interpret some of the rules. Since in most Islamic countries religious leaders are also the state leaders, there is no separation between religion and state. This by it very nature opens the religion up to abuse by the leadership regardless whether they become a state leader or not. They interpret the rules to fit their agenda. This is a fertile ground for toxic leaders to grow including the Taliban. In the Islamic world there is no single leader such as the Pope that governs the entire Muslim world. One toxic leader can cause great damage because of their gross interpretation of the rules. Multiply the number by hundreds or thousands or even millions of leaders, and you have chaos. The levels of gross interpretation are rampant. Every leader can just focus on their organization goals and creating their own followers. The only common grounds that hold these leaders together are rules that are not open to interpretation, the rest is fluid. Rules governing women are among the rules that can be interpreted differently by different leaders.

Some Islamic leaders interpret the rules using cultural context references and some do not. They interpret the rules according to their agenda. The Islamic leaders who interpret the rules using cultural context reference are better in my opinion than the ones who do not. The cultural context reference can be appearance, customs, culture etc.

Appearance for example, men must not reveal to the opposite sex anything above their knees to their belly button. Therefore, technically, it would be OK for a man to go to a mosque to pray or to go anywhere without wearing anything but a piece of textile that covers his belly button to his knees. I have never seen this ever in my life except during hajj. It would be socially unacceptable for an Indonesian man to go to a mosque to pray or to go anywhere without wearing anything to cover his upper torso. I never heard any hot debate about the male proper attire.

The hot debate is always about the women’s proper attire. Women must not reveal to the opposite sex who are not their immediate family member any part of their body with the exception of their palm. They also cannot reveal any silhouette of their body. If a woman reveals any part of their body and it causes a man to be aroused, it is the woman fault and she deserves to be punished.

According to the Muslim leaders, all rules governing the women’s appearances are for the women’s interest. Some Islamic leaders claim that she must cover everything but her palm period. Some leaders argue that she is allowed to show her eyes but not her face and some argue the entire face is OK. The debate is endless.

In my opinion, weather is the main reason that I think Indonesian Muslim women should not wear the head-to-toe burqa style attire. By definition a burqa is “a loose garment (usually with veiled holes for the eyes) worn by Muslim women especially in India and Pakistan and only left some opening in the face” (World Net Search, 2006). The attire is originated in Saudi Arabia with hot and dry climate. According to my Muslim female friends, a burqa style attire is not comfortable for an Indonesian woman because of the hot and humid climate. The minimum long term physical problem with this style of attire is dandruff.

Some of the Indonesian Islamic leaders think that if the women want to go to heaven, she has to wear a black (or any other color) burqa style attire. In my mind, to be fair, those Indonesian Islamic leaders who argue that Indonesian Muslim women must wear burqa style attire should have worn the same attire that the Saudi Arabia men wear with the same exact fabrics. Furthermore, some of these leaders think that the closest you mimic the Prophet Muhammad behaviors blindly without the regard of the cultural context reference, the closer you are to heaven. They never ask the women what they want to wear.

Beside some rules that should have been interpreted using cultural references, the leadership role of Muslim women in any organizations is weakened by the religious rules that are not open to an interpretation. The rules that govern a group prayer are among the rules which are not open to interpretation.

A woman can only lead other women. She never leads a man. If there is a teenage male among them, he must lead the prayer regardless the age of the women or the position of the women in a society. She could be a queen, but when praying in a group, the teenage male is the leader. He must stay in front of all women and lead the prayer. A male leads a transvestite and a transvestite must lead women in a group prayer. That is the right order.

..Muslim Women in the 21st Century Connective Era

2006-09-24T02:00:00.000-07:00

I think the control over women’s appearance should be used as the symbol of struggle that Muslim women have in Islam. If they cannot control the simplest thing in a civilized world such as their own appearance, we cannot expect Muslim women to be a leader in the 21st century.

Nevertheless, I think the Taliban would love to point out the influence that women had in Islamic history. The good old days when a female named queen Bilquis ruled an Islamic kingdom. They may also point out the influence of the Prophet Muhammad wives over him etc. Those arguments use repeatedly by Islamic male leaders when talking about the role of women in Islamic society in general and particularly in leadership. The problem is that the current situation for women in general in the Islamic organizations or countries is far from the historical spirit of the religion. Currently, Muslim women traditionally play supporting roles in the most optimistic situation outside the U.S. If there is a male in an organization among females, he, by virtue of his gender, must lead the organization.

I do not think this is entirely bad in the Connective Era. Since Jean Lipman-Blumen wrote that “The Connective Era poses challenges not only to leaders but to followers as well: to transform themselves into active and responsible constituents who can endorse, and more importantly engage in, a radically different leadership dynamic.” (1996, p. 16). The key here is to make sure that those women become effective followers. This fits with an analogy from My Fat Greek Weeding movie. I would like to paraphrase the statement of the mother of the main female character when she said “A man is the head of a family and a woman is the neck. She can turn the head to the direction she wants it.” The neck support the head and it can turn the head any where the neck wants it, assuming that ‘the neck’ can have wants.

..Individual Solutions

2006-09-24T01:40:00.000-07:00

The key success for Muslim women to become a leader in the Connective Era is to be actively involved and committed in shaping their own destiny. They have to become an effective follower. The Taliban killing of Safia Ana Jan should not deter the Afghani women and Muslim women in general to get involved and start demanding their rights. It would not be easy and death could be the end result of the demands for those individuals.

Educating Islamic women should be the priority of the western civilization. The main goal of the education should make these women understand that they have important role to play. Give them opportunity to learn and practice leadership skills. The western civilization should not wait for the change to happen from inside the Islamic world. Showing the men that women can make a difference in life should help the transition.

Nevertheless, most male in Islamic countries would argue that educating women is a waste. A Muslim woman has to stay at home, cooking, taking care of the kids, cleaning the house and serve their husband without any reservations. It is their destiny in life. Those men would also argue that giving them education would only empower the women and it is not good for the society. It would throw the order of the society into a tail spin, especially if the women are in leadership positions.

Those men would say that women should have no role in Islamic leadership. If this is true, the leadership of Muslim men is doomed in the Connective Era. This is just the opposite of what Jean Lipman-Blumen wrote about the Connective Era. She wrote that “Leaders in the Connective Era have to emphasize both mutuality (a focus on common interests and values) and inclusiveness (the willingness to include even those very different from the rest without requiring their homogenization)” (1996, p.12). The common interest between Islamic male and female are the fight over resources. A good Muslim leader should recognize this. By having their female counterpart on their side with them, the chance to gain more resources is greater. Moreover, the common values between them are the religion. They should emphasize the part of the religion that requires them to work collaboratively, such as raising children. The Muslim men should let the women to lead in raising their children by making their opinions matter. By accepting the fact that Muslim women is important for the Muslim world and work together as a team between Muslim men and women, I believe the human civilization in general is going to the right direction.

As I said before, terror is a method that some of the current Muslim leaders use to fight with to gain control over resources. These leaders fail to recognize the importance of women to win the fight. The role of individuals such Safia Ana Jan should have been praised by the Taliban and they should have not killed her. She worked to make the Afghani women life better. The country would have been better in years to come when Afghani men and women can work together.

..Organization Solutions

2006-09-24T01:20:00.000-07:00

There are many ways that Muslim men and women and the U.S. or western civilization in general can do to work together in Connective Era. Working together for common goals and fostering the spirit of understanding of each others attributes should be the frame work that bridges the Islamic world and western civilization in the Connective Era. This would eliminate some potential conflicts in the Connective Era.

Western civilization should support Muslim women’s organizations in the U.S. We should educate them and work with them. This should help women play an increasing role in the Islamic world. The U.S. should give support to these women to become leaders in their community. Help these women recognize that we are in a different era of leadership. The U.S. should also have a different approach toward the U.S. Muslim leadership. Treat them as equal partner without any prejudice. We need a different mind set to be able to govern effectively in the Connective Era.

The western organization leaders should take advantage of the fluidity of the Islamic religion. This opens up opportunity to influence them by showing them the advantages of working together as fellow human beings. If everybody really cares about the good of human civilization, the leaders must work together in the Connective Era.

For the Muslim men leaders, including the Taliban, the fluidity nature of the religion should be used to their advantages. There would be no steady enemies and no steady friends and no steady groups in Connective Era. In this era, Jean Lipman-Blumen predicted that organization would form:
…short term coalitions, changing kaleidoscopically, will replace long-term political and business alliances… flexible, fast moving organizations, extremely sensitive to change in their environments... connections among organizations and networks will take on new importance as major discontinuities sever the links to our own tradition” (1996, p.10).
It would to their own advantages that Muslim organizations and its leaderships start changing their strategy and abandoning terror as their tactics.

The change of behavior has to start somewhere. It would be an ideal situation if both the Muslim world and western world change its behavior toward each other simultaneously. The world would be a better place for everybody. However, I do not see anything wrong with Muslim organizations and their leaders taking a higher ground by reaching out to the west and working with them collaboratively. ‘The pie’ of resources would be bigger if both sides could work together. The pie could be enlarged easily, if each side works together side by side finding each other strengths. I think it is just plain selfish if one side want to grab all the resources that has been provided by God. Yet, people use God’s name to justify their selfishness.

Finally, the struggle over resources will escalate in the future and we as a nation will have to endure terror threats for eternity if we do not help Muslim woman gain more respect and make them fit leaders for the 21st century. The Islamic world should resurrect their past spirit when they were in leadership position of world civilization. Those days were the days that Muslims used ijtihad which is the analysis of problems that are not precisely covered by the Quran and Hadith. Meaning that in those days, critical thinking and independent thinking were thriving and Muslims used them to enlighten the world including western civilization. In the Connective Era, it should be western civilization’s duty to reciprocate the Islamic world by reminding them the value of ijtihad and the value of women in leadership positions. It would benefit the entire human civilization.

The United States as the current leader in western civilization should recognize and value the different approaches in leadership including the Muslim’s style of leadership. There should be a constant dialogue between the Islamic world and the western world. I do not believe that the west should force its leadership style on other cultures. It would be even worse, if the west does not treat other cultures with dignity. The result could be having to endure an eternity of terrorism. It could become the downfall of western civilization in the Connective Era. The relationship between cultures is not supposed to be a zero sum game.

..References

2006-09-24T01:00:00.000-07:00

Afghan Woman Activist Shot Dead. Retrieved September 26, 2006 from
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3C9B2007-7504-4F8F-B8FD-D4EBDD3AE532.htm

Lipman-Blumen, J., (1996). Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing Word. New York: Oxford University Press

World Net Search. Retrieved September 26, 2006 from http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=burqa

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Connective Leadership in the Global Environment

2006-09-23T23:39:00.000-07:00

By David Chu

How would the management concepts developed in the United States work in environments that are different than ours? As we move deeper and deeper into the knowledge economy, earlier American management principles have encountered unexpected results. As an Asian-American who led a global function from Switzerland working for a global Fortune enterprise, I have seen some of these results first hand. Fortunately, upon closer examination of today's management principles being taught at the Drucker School I believe that the answer to the question is that these principles do apply globally. In this section I have included two observations of leadership as they are viewed through the Connective Era lens concerning global enterprises and different cultures.

.Connective Leadership in Global Enterprises

2006-09-23T22:18:00.000-07:00

“As far as possible, without surrender,
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant;
They too have their story.” [Desiderada]

If there is any person who comes to mind whenever I read the above phrase in Desiderada, that person would be Dr. Joerg Staeheli. And as I thought about the project’s theme regarding individuals exercising connective leadership and nurturing connective leaders, Joerg's name again came to mind. Finally, when I was reading “The Servant as Leader_[1],” my thoughts turned to Joerg as well. Hence, I decided to share with the reader my observation of one connective leader, Joerg, within one global enterprise, Novartis, but this observation may provide a glimpse of how connective leaders may work effectively in other global organizations.

..Seek and One Shall Find

2006-09-23T22:15:00.000-07:00

“It is seekers, then, who make prophets, and the initiative of any one of us in searching for and responding to the voice of contemporary prophets may mark the turning point in their growth and service_[1],” This passage resonated with me because it described the most dramtic turning point in my own career in November of 1995, when I literally searched for and found my prophet in Basel, Switzerland.

It had already been three years since I made a career transition by leaving Exxon Engineering and Research to join a pharmaceutical company. Ever since a traffic accident had seriously injured my parents I had been considering such a career change. And when I joined American Cyanamid in 1992, I was finally able to team up with others to help bring drugs to market sooner. But I, similar to most people, did not appreciate that drug discovery and development is a very time consuming and resource intensive process. Fortunately for me, however, I quickly realized that I was in a knowledge industry and that a more effective collaborative knowledge creation process may make a life or death difference for some patients and a quality of life difference for many others. I became a seeker for ways to improve the drug discovery to marketing cycle.

It was as a seeker when I joined the US branch of Sandoz in November of 1995 as a “groupware evangelist” and within one week one of my US system administrators came to me for permission to remove some applications. He complained that “some Swiss” had forced onto us some applications that took up server space and were not being used. I took one look at these applications, named the Knowledge MarketPlace_[2], and I saw the handiwork of a fellow seeker and evangelist.

Luckily this “Swiss” had included his name and telephone number, so I called him up and volunteered to help him spread the word. I mentioned that I would be visiting Basel in a few days to educate scientists about IT-assisted collaboration and to teach them how to use some collaboration tools that I had developed. He invited me for a short meeting and gave me directions to his office. His name was Dr. Joerg Staeheli.

Because this was my first trip to the Sandoz campus in Basel, Switzerland, I had to literally search for Joerg. And when I found him I was taken aback when I walked into his office. It was in an executive suite and Joerg turned out to be the Technology VP for Sandoz Research. In subsequent years, always informally but connectively, working in different business units and at different hierarchical levels of Novartis and located in different regions of Switzerland, we would combine his organizational and interpersonal strengths and my collaboration technology and process knowledge and together we would set out to improve the Knowledge MarketPlace and to evangelize about its benefits and to teach the ways to use it.

Joerg became one of my mentors and I learned how to become a better mentor for my mentees. Together, as connective leaders_[3], Joerg and I mentored many others, as the next section, The Shepherd and His Flock, illustrates.

The lesson for the aspiring connective leaders is that one should not be afraid to seek. Serendipitous events such as mine happen daily and to many people. Furthermore, one of the proven strategies that both Joerg and I had followed may be classified as that of the servant-leader and the Achievement Styles we used successfully were presented earlier in "Connective Leadership and the Technology Server."

..The Shepherd and His Flock

2006-09-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

“Born of the merger in 1996, … (Novartis) has become a $24 billion corporation. … How can (Novartis) marshal its dispersed, compartmentalized intellectual resources? … Novartis addresses it with a three-pronged strategy: using Web-based technology to foster collaboration within its worldwide workforce; creating a system of development grants (think of in-house Fulbrights) for projects that will make different business units work together; and hosting periodic knowledge fairs to spark ideas.” Wiring the Corporate Brain_[2]

In the previous section, I presented my observation about how individuals can connect and lead across organizational hierarchies in the global organization. In this section, we will examine how the enterprise can develop connective leadership. I will again use Dr. Joerg Staeheli and our informally connected effort to illustrate.

In the summer of 1996, Sandoz merged with Ciba-Geigy to form Novartis. By then, I was already convinced that there existed something I named the “knowledge network_[6]” which was a term I had coined from an IT term as part of the concept of the “Organizational Mind_[7].” I had evangelized in the academic newsgroups for epistemology discussions about the different focus of this terminology to that of the more popular "knowledge management" and I introduced it formally during the merger by reaching out to our Ciba-Geigy colleagues to form the Novartis Knowledge Network of specialists, technologists, and executives. We invited Joerg to join as one of our earliest members.

By November of 1998, Joerg had taken the knowledge networking concept (I realized at the start of this course that it is actually a form of connected leadership.) to new heights. He had formalized it and had started to use the Knowledge MarketPlace as the means in the Connected Era to mentor new connective leaders and had invited me to be one of those leaders. As Gary Abramson wrote in the CIO Magazine, Wiring the Corporate Brain_[2]:

“(Staeheli) prefers to see himself as a shepherd rather than a director. The wording is more than symbolic. Novartis's president, Dan Vasella, asserts that knowledge transfer and creation will determine the company's future competitiveness. ‘Knowledge networking’ shows that Novartis understands that making the most of an organization's intellectual assets is more of a cultural than a technological challenge.

…

(A) few dozen of Novartis's younger scientists and managers (were selected) to become the company's first ‘technology scouts’ in each of its business units worldwide. Their mission is to lead the charge at their home offices in search of promising, cutting-edge technologies and bring colleagues into worldwide, online brainstorming groups that will, hopefully, lead to the development and sharing of those technologies across business units.

…

To convince the scouts to devote time to the new knowledge-sharing project despite pressures the merger has brought, Staeheli brings his boss, Hans Kindler, head of group technology and a member of the Novartis eight-member executive committee, to rub elbows with the scientists the night before their first meeting and emphasize his sponsorship of the project.”

Today, Novartis is recognized as one of the best run companies in the World, a rare success from the slew of pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions, and its value to its stockholders had increased while the fortunes of many other pharmaceutical companies had declined. It is my sincere belief that part of that success must have resulted from its formalization of connective leadership throughout the enterprise.

For the aspiring connective leaders, please note the authenticity traits that Joerg exhibited. I included and highlighted his view of himself as a shepherd because of the term’s Biblical implications related to nurturing and serving and to working towards the health and the growth of the flock. And his flock was the connective leaders, the technology scouts.

In this section I presented one enterprise’s strategy for developing its connective leaders. Perhaps you could draw inspiration from this section to explore possibilities of your own?

.Connective Leadership in Different Cultures

2006-09-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

In this section, we will use the Connective Era lens to observe the unfolding events in Taiwan, which may be viewed as the challenge to the power of a Stage 2 leader, President Chen Shui-bian, by a Stage 3 leader, "Taiwan's Nelson Mandela_[4]," Shih Ming-teh. In particular, we will examine the strategies used by both. While the events in Taiwan may portend the future emergence of Stage 3 leaders to challenge China's Stage 2 leadership and therefore may deserve to be fully researched, we will confine our exploration to within the outline of this project.

We will first introduce the current environment in Taiwan. Next, we will analyze Shih's discernable Individual Achieving Styles. We will follow that by exploring Chen's apparent Stage 2 strategies. And, we will conclude this section by observing possible strategies used by Shih, in context, to confront the quintessentially ineffective and perhaps toxic leader, Chen, and to influence the development of effective connective leaders.

..Current Environment in Taiwan

2006-09-23T06:07:00.000-07:00

Taiwan has a number of major diversity and interdependency factors. In the forefront is the fact that Taiwan is still in an unfinished civil war with China_[8]. There is the fear of death and destruction that an outbreak of violence with China can bring. In addition, a significant segment of the economy is dependent on commerce with China with a large ex-patriot population working in China. And a majority of the population identifies with China culturally while a lesser segment claims a separate ethnicity, which is real enough in their own minds but is nevertheless a mirage created by a 50-year Japanese occupation._[9]

With China ever present in its collective mind, the populace is divided into the pro-independence Pan-Green alliance and the anti-independence Pan-Blue coalition of pro-status quo and pro-reunification stances. The ruling DPP (Democratic Progressive Party) and its Pan-Green allies lost the majority in the critical local elections to the Pan-Blue parties and the DPP went through a major internal restructuring. The political landscape is made ever more confusing while presenting large openings for ruthless opportunists to exploit, because a poorly written constitution does not clearly divide the powers between the governing branches._[14]

There is also concern about the economy slowing down, growing unemployment concerns, and a less than robust GDP growth rate that averaged, according to The Economist, 3.1% in 2001-2005 and that had even dipped to -2.18% in 2001. A number of corruption scandals related to President Chen's family and aides that may implicate Chen himself still have resulted in a large demonstration by an estimated 1-to-3% of the population.

“Since September 9th … protesters, clad in red as a sign of anger, have camped in the city centre. On September 15th hundreds of thousands joined them in heavy rain for what the organisers described as a “siege” march from the presidential palace to the main railway station. … Mr Chen's popularity has plummeted in recent months amid allegations of corruption involving senior aides, a son-in-law and the president's wife. In August the president himself was questioned by prosecutors over the use of false invoices to claim money from a fund available to him for pursuing clandestine diplomacy._[10]”

And while we do not have the Organizational Achieving Style for Taiwan, because Taiwan is not an organization, we may infer Taiwan's connective leadership context from an organizational study by Hofstede_[5]. The plot shown above was prepared from Hofstede’s Figures 5, 6, and 7. The Hofstede study ranks Taiwan slightly above average on a Power Distance Index (on par with Japan and France) and also slightly above average on the Uncertainty Avoidance Index (on par with France and Switzerland). The same article lists Taiwan at near bottom on the Individualism Index (polar opposite to USA and UK) and slightly below average on the Masculinity Index (on par with France).

Taiwan’s slightly larger Power Distance Index, and mildly stronger Uncertainty Avoidance Index, and moderately feminine Masculine Index indicate a large degree of diversity in most aspects of organizational behavior. Thus, Taiwan’s political environment is fertile ground for Stage 2 leaders to divide and conquer.

On the other hand, Taiwan’s very low Individualism Index, termed “collectivist” by Hofstede, is a reflection of the Confucian ethic that extends the concept of family through the government all the way to the head of state. In Taiwan, the president takes on the role of the father figure. As we shall see in the subsequent sections, both Chen and Shih may have based their strategies on a strong Confucian ethic based behavioral tendency.

..Shih's Individual Achieving Styles

2006-09-23T05:08:00.000-07:00

If there ever were a most unlikely challenger to President Chen Shui-bian, one would have thought it would have been Shih Ming-teh. Shih spent 25 years in prison_[4], on the so-called Green Isle, Taiwan’s version of the Soviet gulag for those serving life sentences. He was imprisoned by the then ruling KMT party for espousing democracy. A large portion of his time in prison, 13 years, was spent in solitary confinement. He was one of the founders and leaders of the DPP. During Shih’s treason trial, Chen was his lawyer. So it was major news when Shih published his open letter to Chen on August 7, 2006, calling for Chen to resign_[13]. It also sent shockwaves throughout the Pan-Green alliance that had resulted in immediate attacks_[15]. Subsequently he has exercised Achieving Styles of a Stage 3 leader while seeking to force Chen’s resignation. While Shih had exhibited other styles, due to the limitation of time, I will mainly focus on his highly visible Personal Style

“(B)ypass our rational defenses and tap into the deep emotional reservoirs that followers bring to the leader / constituent relationship, Dazzled by the charismatic leader’s ingenious manipulation of symbols, drama, and rituals, constituents find themselves in the leader’s thrall._[3a]” Shih’s open letter to Chen was certainly a counterintuitive move that had resulted in events as described in this passage by Lipman-Blumen. The legalistic manipulations started by the Pan-Blue Stage 2 opposition leaders to force Chen’s resignation had fizzled until the moment of Shih’s letter. After Shih called for 1% of the population to join a sit-in demonstration in the capital, some estimated the actual participation to be up to 3%.

Other examples of Shih’s Personal Style abound. For instance, by simply viewing the attached photo one could see the careful use of symbols. By choosing to be interviewed in a study setting, by sitting behind a desk scattered with paper, by holding a glass of tea, and by wearing a turtleneck shirt, Shih exuded the symbol of Confucian respect, that of the approachable scholar. The symbols certainly worked, as witnessed by the following quotes.

"Shih's romantic quality compelled them to show up._[_4]”

"We don't consider him a politician," said demonstrator Helen Wang, 52, a retired art teacher from Kaohsiung. "He's a patriot. He's a sensitive person._[_4]”

While the Personal Style has been easily Shih's main style, other styles, including the Collaboration Style, have been discernable as well. For example, the mayor of the capital, Taipei, is Ma Ying-jeou, who also leads the KMT party. Shih's has gone out of his way to collaborate with Ma to ensure that the demonstrations would be peaceful and to select venues and schedules that would minimize commuter inconvenience. He has even invited Ma to participate but Ma has so far demurred.

..Chen's Stage 2 Strategies

2006-09-23T04:11:00.000-07:00

While Shih's has exhibited many Connective Leadership traits, Chen has followed a number of Stage 2 leadership strategies based mainly on fear and Machiavellian intrigue. We will illustrate only the five major discernable strategies.

Raise the "Red terror" specter - "'RED terror' on the streets of Taipei is how Taiwan's ruling party has, with predictable hyperbole, described days of protests ... (insinuating) meddling by the mainland's Communist government. ... China, despite its contempt for Mr Chen and for democracy, would rather see the opposition Kuomintang (KMT ) regain power through the ballot box._[10]" In addition to hyperbole, whenever Chen has been in political trouble he has pushed a bit further toward declaring Taiwan independence in order to goad China into making threats._[16]

President/country singularity – Basically, Chen has been using the symbols of the presidency as a personal shield to drive home the point that anyone who attacks him and his actions would be attacking Taiwan. A most transparent and more recent ploy of this type was his trip to Palau in early September immediately before demonstration masses were gathering. He used Taiwan’s version of Air Force One, which had never been used for such trips before, for the first leg of the trip just so that he could give a press conference on foreign soil, while the demonstrations took place in his absence, to proclaim that “It is a small step for me, but one giant leap for the head of state diplomacy._[12]”

Revere the "father" – Another strategy one may notice is the stress on the Confucian ethic that treats the leader of a country as the father to all people. Chen visited schools more frequently than usual where he would hold students in his arms and would otherwise act the fatherly figure. These televised visits remind the audience that in the Confucian ethic fathers are to be revered and not questioned.

Divide and conquer – Throughout the past few months, Chen would speak to the press using only the Taiwanese dialect, the preferred dialect used by the pro-independence segment of the population. He would also make appearances only in the overwhelmingly pro-independence city of Tainan. His apparent goal has been to remind the pro-independence but anti-corruption demonstrators that they, like him, were different from the Pan-Blue demonstrators.

Attack the person – Chen has thrown every attack possible against Shih at the personal level. His forces have brought out Shih’s ex-wife to accuse Shih on TV of having sold out to the KMT. She brought out a shirt that Shih used to write her while he was in prison. They published from the archives his “confessions.” Unfortunately, this particular ploy backfired because Vice President Lu, a Chen deputy, was also jailed at that time and has had her “confession” published and disavowed in the previous year. She distanced herself from the attack and called Shih’s “confession” as nothing but the product of torture.

Thus whatever strategies chosen by Shih must be able to counter the five strategies used by Chen.

..Leadership Strategies in a Cultural Context

2006-09-23T03:12:00.000-07:00

While many other factors will determine the outcome of events in Taiwan, the power of the Connective Leadership strategies used by Shih is evident. Other Stage 2 leaders who could not transcend party lines and who had mainly sat on the sidelines, notably Ma Ying-jeou, who heads the KMT, should perhaps take note.

“Because of Shih's age and his recent treatment for liver cancer, media and analysts say the sit-in may be his last public campaign. Shih has also said he expects no personal gain from the demonstration._[4]”

In the earlier section on Shih’s Achieving Styles I referred to his scholarly appearance. When coupled with his denial of death act that was described in the above passage, the Chinese see in Shih an all powerful symbol. The ultimate Confucian idea is that of the scholar who dares to transcend death to petition for the emperor to act according to propriety. The Chinese have a special place in their hearts especially reserved for those people who are perceived to exhibit zhongcheng (忠誠), which has somewhat similar meanings to authenticity_[3b] but connotes loyalty, and demands a devotion to principle that would end with one’s own death if necessary.

I had planned to add other strategies but they all pale when compared to the one I have just listed. By focusing on this single strategy, Shih has certainly succeeded in sowing the seeds of connective leadership in the hearts and minds of the high school and college students, the mothers and the children they bring with them, the business men and women, the pro-democracy advocates, the pro-reunification die-hards, and the status quo seekers.

For the aspiring connective leaders in different cultures, based on this sample case, I would suggest to look for the Achieving Styles that best fit within the cultural context.

..References

2006-09-23T02:28:00.000-07:00

[1] Robert K. Greenleaf, "The Servant as Leader," Paulist Press.

[2] Gary Abramson, "Wiring the Corporate Brain," May 15, 1999, CIO Magazine

[3] Jean Lipman-Blumen, "Connective Leadership: Managing in a Changing World," 2000, Oxford University Press. P.237, “Because connective leaders recognize the importance and inevitability of interdependence, … (their) gifts of trust, collaboration, sponsorship, encouragement, and behind-the-scenes assistance set the reciprocation dynamic in motion. Their behavior in turn becomes a model for other members of their interdependence environment.” [3a] p. 199. [3b] p. 245

[4] Ralph Jennings, "NEWSMAKER-Taiwan's leading dissident in stand against president," Sept. 12, 2006, MSNBC

[5] Geert Hofstede, "Motivation, Leadership, and Organization," 1980, AMACOM.

[6] David L. Chu, “KEY CONCEPT: Shadow Hierarchy”, September, 2005, Knowledge/Action (“Shadow Hierarchy” was a new name for “Knowledge Network”), “To the "yang" of the business structure there is a need for a "yin" structure. … (1) The structure is not as rigidly structured but is flexible. At any instant, the structure would reflect the informational needs of the business. (2) The hierarchy is not vertically structured but is horizontally constructed in order to promote the free flow of information. (3) The direction for information is sensed by each knowledge leader at each stage based on the analysis of business drivers. (4) The forward knowledge leader senses the directions of the following knowledge leaders and creates an aligned direction and then pulls the succeeding knowledge leaders in that aligned direction. (5) Finally, the forward leaders lead and support those who follow.”

[7] David L. Chu, “The Organizational Mind, a K-value of K^2 or K*log(K)?,” September, 2005, Knowledge/Action, “If a network of dumb chips could defeat the human chess champion, what kind of power can one unleash if one can network a bunch of extremely smart scientists?”

[8] “(Taiwan) History in brief,” February 6, 2004, The Economist, “In 1949 Taiwan was taken over by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek, who had lost mainland China to the communists. … Taiwan acts as though independent, but it is deterred from declaring formal independence by a threat of invasion from the mainland. Taiwanese who favour a declaration of independence believe China would not dare invade and risk war with America, which sees itself as Taiwan's guardian. … Modern Taiwan, a racially mixed nation of 22m people, differs from China, they say: it owes its success to a workforce highly educated in a system set up by the Japanese. In 1993, the government supported the establishment of the country's Institute of Taiwan History, crammed with scholars who enthusiastically seek to show Taiwan's ‘unique characteristics’. Despite this politicisation of history, most Taiwanese support the status quo, hoping that an eventual democratisation on the mainland will make reunion possible.”

[9] ibid., “An expanding Japan fancied the island and in 1895 forced China to hand it over after winning the Sino-Japanese war. Japan's rule lasted until 1945, when it was defeated in the second world war.”

[10] “Masses in Taiwan protest against the government,” September 21, 2006, The Economist.

[11] ibid., “Since September 9th Mr Shih and fellow protesters, clad in red as a sign of anger, have camped in the city centre. On September 15th hundreds of thousands joined them in heavy rain for what the organisers described as a “siege” march from the presidential palace to the main railway station.”

[12] “President Chen takes Air Force One to Palau,” September 9, 2006, Office of the President, “President Chen also noted that taking Air Force One to conduct the state visit is of great significance since Air Force One strongly demonstrates Taiwan's sovereignty. … After visiting Palau, President Chen will … return to Taipei on September 6.”

[13] “施明德致函-促請陳水扁下台 (Shih Ming-teh’s Open Letter to Chen Shui-bian),” August 7, 2006, Open Letter

[14] “(Taiwan) Political forces,” October 20, 2005, The Economist, “Taiwan the relationship between the president, premier and parliament is less well defined than it is in France. Successive waves of constitutional reform since 1991 have not resolved this lack of clarity, and some academics argue that the changes have made the situation even more confused.”

[15] Gerrit van der Wees and Mei-chin Chen, “A letter to Shih Ming-teh,” August 22, 2006, Taipei Times, “We are deeply concerned about the recent actions of former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Shih Ming-teh (施明德), in particular his campaign to get President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to step down. We are writing this as friends.”.

[16] Luis Ramirez, "China Warns Taiwan Not to Push Constitutional Reforms," September 27, 2006, Voice of America. “China is warning Taiwan not to reform the island's constitution. … Revamping the constitution has been one of Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's main political objectives, ... Members of Chen's party are expected to introduce a bill on changing the island's name from the current ‘Republic of China,’ to ‘Republic of Taiwan.’”

Conclusions

2006-09-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

In conclusion, we would like to remind the readers of our research questions. The questions are:

How can individuals influence the advancement of effective Connective Era leadership strategies?
What strategies can institutions use to influence the development of effective leaders in the 21st century?

In her seminal book, Prof. Jean Lipan-Blumen highlights the importance of a different kind of leadership in the Connective Era. For those who aspire to be an effective leader in the Connective Era, he/she should abandon the characteristics of leadership from the current and previous era. Change in behaviors and mindsets are a must. Leading people in the Connective Era requires a different breed of people. These future leaders are not afraid to abandon the previous leadership styles.

Each of our sections approached the questions from different angles which covers the need of change. We want our final project to reflect the reality in the Connective Era as close as possible.

We found that:

In a corporate setting, individuals should recognize his/her potential and strive to become a level 5 leader by using connective leadership styles.
The corporate organization needs to consider ways to support its members in their development to create a community of connective leaders.
Individuals need to be proactive in demonstrating accountability within their organizations in order to gain trust and to influence the development of more effective leaders. Furthermore, individuals should learn to grow their own authenticity by practicing leadership capabilities within their families, community, and work.
Muslim women should become active followers, change their mindset, and understand that it is possible for them to become leaders in the Muslim world.
Islamic organizations and their leaders should abandon terror as their means to compete in the Connective Era and they should embrace the West using ijtihad while at the same time they should enhance the leadership role of women in Islamic organizations.
Regardless of the culture, every individuals may have a strong influence over other people in the Connective Era and connective leadership should be used for leadership development.
A successful servant-leader strategy for individuals to become connective leaders is to direct their intrinsic achieving style towards developing and exercising their relational and social achieving styles.
Whenever possible, aspiring connective leaders should seek strategies that would utilize, in a denatured-Machiavellian manner, achieving styles that fit the cultural context.

As we mentioned at the beginning of our blog, we intend for it to be a living document. We plan to visit the Connective Era blog even after the course is over and to continue updating its content.

As Prof. Jean Lipman-Blumen said, the Connective Era is just dawning and it will continue to evolve. This blog is our contribution to the Connective Era and it covers just a small part of Connective Era leadership. The conclusions expressed in this blog are personal views of each author and are not intended as the definitive assessment of leadership in the Connective Era.

Finally, we believe that in the Connective Era other contributors would enrich our conclusions. We plan to open the blog and invite other participants to contribute to the blog. In the meantime, if the readers have any opinion regarding the leadership topics in the Connective Era, please do not hesitate to use the comment link. We would be happy to review and to include them in future updates at the appropriate time.

Thank you.
MGT 535 Connective Era Team.