Business organization (стр. 8 из 13)
Keep in mind that people easily lose sight of the big picture when they get caught up in life’s daily details. As leader, you must know how to bring them back and make sure they know the way.
There’s much more to a business leader’s job, but you’ll start off on the right foot by developing a direction, aligning your organization behind the common goal and bringing them back when they stray.
Setting direction sounds easy, but it requires vigilance and work. And you’re the only one who can do it. Pointing the way and rallying the troops forward are two primary responsibilities of a successful leader.
Text 7. How to be a Successful Leader.
All good leaders have this in common, positive self-esteem. It is vital to your success as a business person and a human being. You must feel about yourself to accomplish great things and have control over your life.
1. Goals are the means to use to-reach your dreams. Do not make your goals unrealistic.
2. Use small successes to generate lager ones.
3. Keep pushing yourself to allow you to reach your full potential. There is a price to pay to be successful, and that price is hard work. Do not be afraid of it.
4. Being positive is an attitude that can be controlled by you.
5. Surround yourself with positive people and block out all negative ones you come in contact with.
6. Good habits should be second nature.
7. Make sure that every day you are in control. Be focused and don’t put things off until tomorrow. It can be a bad habit.
8. Communicating is a powerful force, and that doesn’t mean you should be doing all the talking. You must listen.
9. How you relate to people in your business is extremely important. Treat them with respect.
10. A good leader will learn from others. Do not allow your ego stop you from seeking advice from people that have been there before you. Learn from their mistakes.
11. Pressure and stress are two different animals. Pressure makes a person more focused. Stress robs you of it and harms your performance.
12. Anyone can be great for a short time, but to be successful over the duration of your life, you must be persistent. The essence of persistence is not to quit. Take this word out of your vocabulary.
13. How you handle adversity is a sign of your maturity. Do not be afraid of it, meet it head on and take immediate action, because it won’t go away by itself.
14. If you fail, accept it. You learn by failure and you’ll be better prepared and wiser the next time around.
15. Keep striving for excellence.
Text 8 . Leadership and organizational values
“Organizational values” is an over used and perhaps an abused term in companies across the world. You find a well decorated and eye catching board carrying values statement or credo statement in every executive’s room and at many prominent places in a company. Why are values so important and how are they useful for the organization?
Why are values important?
Values signify the principles or moral standards of a person, group or organization that are considered to be valuable or important. Values are basic beliefs and convictions which govern behavior of people in their work, dealing and decision making. But is it sufficient? Is the leadership role limited to facilitating the process of strategic planning in an organization?
Organizational values establish standards of behavior, which serve to encourage or discourage certain behaviours. In other words organizational values help people to identify priorities at workplace.
It all starts with leadership
Leaders are not only the source but also the most important means of establishing organizational values. Leaders not only set direction for the organization, they also establish the means to achieve the goals. These represent the beliefs and behaviours that can not be compromised for the sake of results. It is through this handle of values that leaders shape people’s behaviour and build organizational culture.
For example, Masaru Ibuka, the founder of Sony, had spelt out his ideology during 1946 – long before Sony had made its first profits, as teamwork, technological innovation, ethical and fair practices, and emphasis on ability and performance. This ideology had driven Sony for no less than three decades.
Creating common understanding
Putting the values in writing is important and more important is to create common understanding of the values in the organization. Leaders must clearly communicate why the value is important for achievement of goals. In other words leaders clarify the meaning of the quoted values for the organization. J&J credo says service to customers is their top priority, even ahead of their shareholders. The credo statement clearly articulates organization’s responsibility towards each of the stakeholder.
Enabling and encouraging people to live by values
Leadership must very clearly specify the positive behaviours and negative behaviours with respect to the values and must put in mechanisms to encourage positive behaviours. The legendary Jack Welch’s story of linking individual performance with compliance to organizational values is well known. At GE he said that there is always a second chance for people who acted according to GE values and yet could not deliver the results. And those who achieved the results by exhibiting positive behaviours with respect to values are people who go up the ladder. Decision was equally easy with people who could not deliver on either aspects – they had only way to go – out. Difficulty was with people who delivered on performance but not believing in GE values. Such people would be warned to mend their ways and if they still persisted with their old behaviours, the direction for them was the same – out.
Most critical aspect – walking the talk
No matter how genuine and moral your values be, no matter how well articulated your values be, no matter how well you communicate your values, as leader, what really matters is how you behave. People see, believe and do what you do, not what you say. However well articulated and publicized your values might be, it is only when people see their leaders “living the values”, and do they understand the spirit behind and understand the significance of values in the game plan of the company.
Ability to “walk the talk” is ultimate test of leaders’ character. As the famous Hewlett-Packard story demonstrates role-modeling behavior by its co-founder Bill Hewlett, when he broke open a lock put on a store room and placed the lock with a short note on the manager’s desk. The note read that locked store rooms do not reflect the HP value of respect for employees.
It is through such exemplified role modeling behavior that leaders create leaders at all levels which are in fact the extension of their own personality. The philosophy of leaders thus becomes a way of life for the organization. This is what differentiates winning leaders from the rest.
Answer the questions:
1. What does leadership consist of as an element of social interaction?
2. What is leadership?
3. Name three levels of leadership in organization?
4. What are the main characteristics of an effective leader?
5. Why is it necessary to learn how to lead?
6. What does a value-based leadership mean and what is it based on?
7. What are leadership attributes?
8. How do you understand result-based leadership?
9. Why is coaching a vital skill for a leader?
10. What person can we call a super-leader?
11. What are key benefits of super leader?
12. What does the essence of leadership mean?
13. What is the essential role of managers in business?
14. What does leadership skill provide versus managerial skill?
15. What is the difference between setting directions and setting goals? Who performs these tasks?
16. What rules must be followed to be a successful leader?
17. What do organizational values mean?
18. Why are they important?
19. Why is the role of leaders important in establishing organizational values?
20. How can leader encourage people to leave by values?
21. What does the ability “walk the talk” mean?
Vocabulary to Unit 6
1. sense of excitementчувствоволнения, воодушевления
2. convincev убеждать
3. aspirationn, C стремление, сильное желание (достичь ч-л.)
4. distinguishv различать, находить отличия
Syn.: differentiate
5. self-confident adj.уверенныйвсебе
Syn.: self-assured
6. tightshipводонепроницаемый; здесь: надежный корабль
7. ivorytowerбашня из слоновой кости
8. hide(away) vпрятаться, скрываться
9. persuadev убеждать, уговорить
Syn.: convince, induce
10. free-rain leadershipлидерство «свободныхповодьев»
Syn.: laissez-faireleader – либеральный руководитель
11. concurrence n 1)согласованность; 2)стечение обстоятельств
12. willinglyadv. охотно, с готовностью
13. outcomen итог, последствия, результат
Syn.: result, consequence
14. enhancevувеличивать, усиливать, улучшать
Syn.: improve, increase; intensify, reinforce
15. enhancementn повышение, прирост; улучшение
16. cohesionn сцепление, связь, сплоченность, единство
17. consequencen последствия, результат
18. outbossv здесь: переусердствовать
19. facilitatev облегчать, содействовать, способствовать
Syn.: help, assist
20. excelv превосходить, превышать; выделяться
Syn.: exceed, surpass
21. exceedv превышать, переступать пределы, превосходить
22. forego (forewent, foregone) предшествовать
23. insightn интуиция, понимание, проницательность
24. revelationn открытие, разоблачение, раскрытие (тайны)
25. energizev побуждать к действию, проявлять энергию
26. attributen свойство, отличительная черта
27. attribute(to) v объяснять (чем-л.), относить (to- за счет ч-л.)
28. arrayn совокупность, набор, комплект
29. coachingn кураторство, наставничество
30. breedn поколение, потомство
breedv воспитывать, обучать, пестовать
31. cognitiveskills когнитивные, познавательные навыки
32. flexibilityn гибкость, приспособляемость
33. inabsence в отсутствие, за неимением, недостатком
34. tangibleresults ощутимые, реальные результаты
35. embodyv воплощать, олицетворять; объединять, включать
36. drudgeryn тяжелая, монотонная работа
Syn.: labour
37. diversifyv вводить разнообразие, диверсифицировать
38. enduringdirection устойчивый курс, направление
39. sweepingadj. 1) широкий, с большим охватом; 2)огульный
40. world-shattering пошатнувший мир
41. alignv ставить в ряд, равняться, вставать в один ряд
alignoneselfwith действовать заодно
42. losesight упустить из виду, потерять
43. strayadj. заблудившийся
stray v сбиться с пути, отбиться, отклониться
44.vigilancen бдительность
display, exercise, show vigilance проявлятьбдительность
45. push(oneself) v подталкиватьсебя
46. relateto… реагировать, соотносить, определять соотношение
47. persistentadj. устойчивый, стабильный; упорный
48. adversitynбедствия, неприятности, несчастья
handleadversity справляться с неприятностями
49. maturity зрелость
50. beliefn, C вера, доверие; мнение, убеждение
Syn.: conviction; opinion
51. compliancen одобрение, согласие; соответствие
52. walkthetalkпоступать в соответствии с убеждениями/
провозглашаемыми принципами
Unit 7. Business Culture and Business Ethic.
Text 1. What is culture?
Culture in general is concerned with beliefs and values on the basis of which people interpret experiences and behave. Broadly and simply put, “culture’ refers to a group or community with which you share common experiences that shape the way you understand the world.
The same person, thus, can belong to several different cultures depending on his or her birthplace, nationality; ethnicity, family status; gender, age; language, education; physical condition, religion, profession, place of work and its corporate culture.
Culture is a “lens” through which you view the world. It is central to what you see, how you make sense of what you see and how you express yourself.
Four cultural dimensions. Cultures – both national and organizational – differ along many dimensions. Four of the most important are:
1. Directness (get to the pointversusimply the massages.
2. Hierarchy (follow orders versus engage in debate)
3. Consensus (dissent is accepted versus unanimity is needed)
4. Individualism (individual winners versus team effectiveness).
Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges. Culture is often at the root of communication challenges. Exploring historical experiences and the ways in which various cultural group have related to each other is key to opening channels for cross-culturalcommunication. Becoming more aware of cultural differences, as well as exploring cultural similarities, can help you find yourself in a confusing situation, ask yourself how culture may be shaping your own reactions, and try to see the world from the other’s point of view.
Cultural Shock. Failure to identify cultural issues and take action can lead to a culture shock. In order of priority, the most often found symptoms of culture shock are: