kohola
Sunday, 23 June 2013
place beyond the pines
I just watched The Place Beyond The Pines.. love the ending scene with Bon Iver's The Wolves (Act I and II)
Tuesday, 28 May 2013
I need a decision-making app!
This weekend I participated in the Startup Weekend in Wroclaw, where together with my friend Charlotte we pitched our idea for a an app for crowdsourcing personal decisions and getting anonymous feedback from friends. It was such a great experience! Thanks to the talented developers in our team we managed to have a working website ready by the end of the weekend. We also came up with many new ideas for our business model thanks to the amazing mentors!
I think I'll become a startup weekend addict now :)
I think I'll become a startup weekend addict now :)
My advice for the future SW participants is to get the most of the event by networking as much as possible with like-minded people, to focus on the main points of the assessment criteria in the presentation, as well as to know your judges! We managed to scare one of them away.. uff :)
Saturday, 15 September 2012
self-made men
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - what role does narcissism have in leadership? - - - - - - - - - -
Narcissus by Caravaggio |
Caravaggio’s painting presents a young man gazing at his own reflection in the water. He seems mesmerized and cannot take eyes of his own glance.
The myth of Narcissus is firmly rooted in our culture, symbolizing self-love and egotism, selfishness and turning away from the world. Narcissus
is not only in love in
himself but also in his idealized image,
which he creates. It is interesting to explore the meaning of this myth in
the context of leadership.
In "Envy Theory: Perspectives on the Psychology of Envy" Frank John Ninivaggi describes narcissism as the 'energetic dimension of ego', 'the motor behind universal self-revelance strivings', a feature - when within normal limits - is necessary to maintain a reasonably coherent sense of self and self-identity. Only abnormal and excessive levels of narcissim are expressed as arrogance, egocentric pride and vanity. The psychological birth of narcissism is natural, and dates back to each one of us first experience of hunger and first cry as an infant, which signals to the mother a state of loneliness and need for help.
In "Envy Theory: Perspectives on the Psychology of Envy" Frank John Ninivaggi describes narcissism as the 'energetic dimension of ego', 'the motor behind universal self-revelance strivings', a feature - when within normal limits - is necessary to maintain a reasonably coherent sense of self and self-identity. Only abnormal and excessive levels of narcissim are expressed as arrogance, egocentric pride and vanity. The psychological birth of narcissism is natural, and dates back to each one of us first experience of hunger and first cry as an infant, which signals to the mother a state of loneliness and need for help.
Being an abnormal narcissist paves the
way to ‘leadership’ – people
with narcissistic
personalities usually aspire
to become someone ‘special’. Taking
a leading position represents one of the ways of realizing this need. Narcissists are tireless in the pursuit of
success and are ready to give up their private lives
for this sake. The life of a narcissist
becomes a never-ending race to confirm his own value.
Being
a narcissist facilitates building one’s career and
surpassing others - not because one is better than all the rest. People with this character trait are simply more
willing to sacrifice everything for success. Moreover, narcissistic people are often selected as
leaders due to the fact that they are very convincing
and able to make a good impression. The
impression is false – behind
a façade of a confident person hides someone whose internal self-esteem is not
very high and whose competences do not actually stand out.
Narcissism is a detrimental and dangerous feature of any leader,
and it should not be mistaken for positive characteristics like self-confidence or willingness to take control over a situation. Narcissistic leaders, while always ready to
give orders and constantly empahasizing their dominant position, are not good at
the basic activities which facilitate the work of any team: communicating,
listening to others, encouraging knowledge, ideas and information sharing.
Collaboration is just not their thing. Narcissistic leaders prefer obedience to
constructive criticism, strive to make their authority undeniable, instead of
welcoming opposing views as valid points on the way to compromise solution.
The problem is that almost everyone can get narcissistically ‘stung’ – our self-centered, egotistic characteristics can come to the surface once we climb up the career ladder, once we emerge as leaders.
The first step to overcoming one's excessive levels of narcissism is gratitude - that is, clearer appreciation of and developing admiration of the attempts of another, realistic and respectful acknowledgment of differences, weaknesses, shortcomings, faults and uncertainties of both oneself and others (Ninivaggi, 2010)
Let's be alert to that. Haven’t we had enough of narcissistic 'leaders' in our history? Don't we have enough of them in our daily lives?
The first step to overcoming one's excessive levels of narcissism is gratitude - that is, clearer appreciation of and developing admiration of the attempts of another, realistic and respectful acknowledgment of differences, weaknesses, shortcomings, faults and uncertainties of both oneself and others (Ninivaggi, 2010)
Thursday, 30 August 2012
effective leadership: no to cohesion - yes to creative chaos
It has been said
that the desire for cohesion is the enemy of a real leadership. Why?
Leaders require certain qualities
and skills to be effective. They need to be able to influence people,
motivate them, and ensure them that their work is a meaningful contribution to
the project. Leadership is always context-dependent, and there is no set path, and no one typical solution for exercising it successfully.
It may seem that effective leaders
should be able to dominate the group and take all their members in one
direction, uniting them for a common objective. Leading a group of people
characterised by similar features, with a sense of collective identity and
purpose, mutual support and effective patterns of communication – a cohesive
group – seems therefore as an ideal environment, which allows for achievement of the highest level of performance, guaranteeing the success of the project.
Nevertheless, cohesion and integrity
are not natural features of the society, especially in today’s deepening
culture of individualism and emphasis on personal freedom and independence. For
this reason, modern leaders need to be open-minend, and should be able to turn
differences among individuals, with their varied mindsets and convictions, into
the strengths of the organisation. Real leaders require the ability to
listen, understand and make positive use of the different views and insights they
encounter, turning them into creative and innovative purposes. Leaders who
follow one clear path from the outset, and try to uniformalise employees behaviour
in the workplace, miss out on many original and inventive ideas generated outside of
„the box“. Moreover, they fail to inspire their subordinates.
Many modern enterprises – including Internet giants like Google or Facebook and small start-ups - recognising this
issue, foster cultural and intellectual diversity among their employees and encourage experimental
attitudes.
In the article and video below you can learn more on how leadership in the
most visionary companies has nothing to do with search for cohesion and
uniformity, but rather with managing creative chaos - an example of which is Google's Twenty Percent Time solution.
Labels:
cohesion,
creativity,
leadership
Location:
114 Windsor Park Rd, Singapore 574178
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