Asian Institute of Technology Center in Vietnam

1. Asian Institute of TechnologyCenter in Vietnam Leadership Skills Workshop Nov. 18 to 20, 2002

2. Workshop Objectives • This seminar is designed as an interactive workshop • The Course Leader’s responsibilities are to present (1) the latest developments in the field of Leadership and Change • This will come from both theoretical research and the result of practical examples

3. Participants’ Role • Participants’ responsibilities are to: • Contribute to the learning process by giving examples of the processes of leadership and change as practised in Viet Nam today • Evaluate the Course Leader’s theories and examples in the light of their own experience

4. Outsider’s Perspective • From the viewpoint of a foreigner, the working environment in Viet Nam is changing e.g.: • The ruling Party is allowing members to participate in business • The Republic will join AFTA by 2010 • Opening to WTO and U.S. trade

5. Forces of Change • The Republic will therefore be subjected to the same forces of change that impact the world trading community from the U.S. to Singapore • The ruling forces in world business today: • Technology • Globalisation • Education • Deregulation

6. Historical Waves of Change • Leadership and change have evolved in tune with the tides of history: • In hunter-gatherer society, strength was the basis for leadership • In agricultural society, experience • In industrial age, knowledge & the logic of reductionism • In today’s knowledge economy, it is inductive and holistic reasoning

7. Metaphor metamorphosis • Typical metaphor of the industrial age was to cast leader of a organisation as (1) driver (of a train) or (2) pilot (of a plane) • Today’s leadership metaphor are more organic, acknowledging that neither the head nor heart can exist without the rest of the body • The result is terms like DNA, nature/nurture, the holistic or systems approach have come into use

8. East-West Convergence • As eastern philosophy has always been based on a holistic and not reductionist approach, the new way is leading to a merging of East-West paradigm • Globalisation has helped along the process as even conservative companies in U.S. and EU recognise the need to recruit talent from all over the world

9. The Battle for Talent • U.S. recognises that its technical advances owe much to the thousands of talented IT professionals who go to Silicon Valley from East and South Asia • To close the gap between developing and developed countries, developing countries need to retain the talent it already has even if it does not recruit from outside

10. Organisational Climate/Culture • According to management guru, Charles Handy, all organisations could be broadly categorised as four types: • Zeus (Greek Father-God) or Authoritarian • Apollo – a culture based or rules and regulations • Athena – a culture based on consultation with subordinates • Dionysius – a laissez faire culture

11. Leadership Styles • The leadership style that prevails in organisations follow the culture: • Command and control for Zeus • Control and direct for Apollo • Consult for Athena • Participative Management for Dionysius • We’ll look into leadership styles later

12. Leadership & Management • Leadership has a longer history than management • Even hunter-gatherer societies has their leaders, based upon strength and expertise in the hunt. Hence leaders were young • In agricultural societies, because experience was critical, older leaders prevailed

13. Changing Leadership Traits • In the industrial age, leaders were those who knew more than their followers • In the knowledge economy, leadership roles are evolving again • While wisdom still counts, the IT savvy young has a clear advantage • The dot-com collapse reinforces the view that while IT is critical, it is still a supporting devise for strategy

14. Genesis of Management • Management grew out of the need to construct order out of chaos • Its first practitioners were the military because they were the first to employ large numbers of people • Business corporations followed in the early 20th Century • Now business recognises that management is inadequate to deal with the rapidly changing environment today

15. Management Tasks aim to simplify work for subordinates who do not have full picture: Planning Organising Controlling Leadership Tasks recognise that followers can help to achieve goals because they may know as much as leader: Setting Objectives Aligning Resources Motivating Followers Complexity and Change

16. Ancient Wisdom of East & West • From ancient Greece, Socrates advised leaders to “Know Thyself” • From ancient China, Sun Tzu in his “The Art of War” advised military commanders that to win, they need to • Know Thyself • Know Thy Enemy • Know the Terrain

17. Modern Sociological Studies • Modern sociological studies on the factors influencing the development of leaders confirm the ancient wisdom: • Cooley and the Looking Glass Theory • Mead on the interactive nature of personal development • Goffman on Impression Management

18. Comparing 2 East-West Leaders • Study the early history of Lee Kuan Yew and Jack Welch to identify similarities and differences in their upbringing • How do you think their early experiences contribute to their later emergence as leaders? • What lessons do they hold for you?

20. East-West Culture • Geert Hofstede studied differences in the thinking of East-West leaders and identified four primary dimensions: • Power Distance • Individualism-Communitarianism • Masculinity-Femininity • Uncertain Avoidance

21. Other Divisions • Other identifiable differences: • Reductionism-Holistic Thinking • Guilt-Shame • Love-Justice • Nurture-Nature

22. Organisational Culture • Edgar H Schein pursued the study of organisational culture in the 80s and defined three levels • Artefacts (the symbols that everyone recognises) • Espoused Values (what company says they are) • Underlying Assumptions (the real beliefs that determine the behaviour of members)

23. Multiple Intelligences • In 1995, the concept of Emotional Intelligence (EI) propounded by Daniel Goleman jolted the world to a new reality • IQ or logical or mathematical intelligence was not the mainspring to success • IQ may be the necessary entry requirement but success belonged to those with high EI

24. Multiple Intelligence • Goleman’s work led Prof Howard Gardner of Harvard to study other intelligences and he recognised seven: • Linguistics • Logical/mathematical • Musical • Kinesthetic • Spatial • Interpersonal • Intrapersonal

25. Values and Performance • Further studies reveal more interesting observations • Intelligence of all varieties are randomly distributed • Still, some peoples perform better than others consistently in some activities • This led some observers to conclude that values (embedded in culture) affect performance

26. Resolution of Conflicts • Conflicts in organisations are inevitable • They could be functional or dysfunctional • To achieve harmony, useful to teach the process of negotiations • Only 3 results: win-lose; lose-lose; win-win • To achieve win-win, need to seek common interest or supraordinate goal • But first, know your own negotiating style