Session 4

I just had my TWC lesson few hours ago and I think I should start writing while my memories are still fresh.

This week we talked about various drivers as well as changing leadership and management. I am particularly interested in the later part of the session about the changing leadership.

My key takeaway from this lesson is that I have a better understanding of how leadership and management affect the development of a company or a country. One phrase that I find it extremely important is “ leader does the right thing and manager does things right”. I think this sentence summarize the essence of leadership and management as well as illustrate the difference between them. As a leader, one is suppose to come out with new ideas and walk ahead of the rest of the society. A leader is the one that create the direction for the rest to follow while the manager plan the details on how to get to the destination. Here are some of my own thoughts. A successful man is often a good leader as well as a good manager. A man is unlikely to succeed even if he has lots of brilliant ideas if he does not possess a good management skill. After an idea is created, the main and most difficult step is to make this idea become real. This step is the key step that determines success or failure and hence management skill comes into the play. Fortunately from my observation, most good leaders are good managers as well because the process of making one a good leader will somehow train a person to be a good manager as well. Hence majority of the great leaders such as steve job are good managers as well.

One of the discussion topics that I would like to bring up here is from the discussion question from the last presenter on GenY. His discussion question is that in the current society, there are increasing number of management position taken up by the GenY and how are they as manager deal with their subordinates who are less prone to adapt changes. I feel that in this issue the main thing is about attitude. I believe many companies face this problem nowadays and I feel that the root of the problem is the attitude of the managers. The young managers should first humble themselves. Then gradually implement the changes to their subordinate. One of the classmate mentions that one measure is to implement the changes in a slower pace so that the older generation will be able to cope. I believe if the managers having the right attitude and the company is willing to give the older workers opportunities to upgrade themselves, the problems should be able to eradicate from its root.

Overall I give today’s lesson 8/10 as I feel that sometimes class discussion often run out of focus after a while. Hopefully in the future sessions our discussion can be improved in the way that address the question directly.