MGMT 788 – Week 1

Before synchronous session preparation

  1. Read Syllabus posted on ilearn
  2. Read Kotter, J. 2001. What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review.
  3. Purchase course pack (if you haven’t yet) here : https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/949315
  4. Read instructions about Learning Circle Group Assignment
  5. Complete Course community glossary entry

In Class Activity: Getting to know your colleagues

Class Notes

  • Manager:
    • Organizes the work to make it happen efficiently.
  • Leader:
    • Aligns people to the vision of the future.
    • People assume leadership starts with a powerful position, but for most people leadership comes before you get a powerful position.
  • Group discussion
    • What do you agree with from the article?
      • The idea of balancing long-term goals with short-term goals that build towards it.
      • Aligning people versus organizing and staffing.
      • Leaders focus on communicating around alignment
      • Managers focus on staffing and organizing.
      • Firms need a balance between leaders and managers.
        • Trying to have on person do both often times doesn’t work.
      • Planning and budgeting is more a manager thing than a leadership
      • Creating a culture of leadership
        • Creative latitude for front-line workers
        • Upside-down org-charts
        • Leaderfulness
          • Proctor and Gamble case study
    • What do you disagree with?
      • It seems like some people really are natural born leaders, contrary to what the article says
      • The article creates discrete categories where reality fuzzier
      • CEOs legally have to do finance and budgeting which the article attributes to managers and not leaders
    • How does it connect to your life?
      • Being a leader affects all the relationships in your life
      • While many of the aspects of leadership can be innate, not all of them necessarily are, and we all still have a lot to learn from examples like this.
  • What Leaders Really Do: Criticisms of the article
    • These categories are not so cut and dry
    • Managers do many leadery things
    • Leaders do many managery things
  • TED Talk: Are you a giver or a taker?