Thursday, June 10, 2010

International and Cross-Cultural Negotiation, Summary

Team 3
Ajiboye Oyeleke

Summary and Reflection
INTERNATIONAL AND CROSS-CULTURAL NEGOTIATION
The chapter focused on international and cross-cultural negotiation, the various fields of negotiation that spans between countries. The chapter discussed the reasons for difference in International negotiation, Phatak and Habib agreed that two overall context, the environment and immediate context have an influence in international negotiation. In the environmental context, factors such as political and Legal Pluralism, International Economies, foreign Governments and bureaucracies, instability, Ideology, culture, external stake holders have an effect on the environmental factors while the factors that influence the immediate context are relative bargaining power, Levels of conflict, relationship between negotiators, desired outcomes and the immediate stakeholders all play a major role in its influence, understanding the multiple influences of several factors in the negotiation process and outcome to update this understanding regularly as circumstances change is important.
The chapter also discussed how to conceptualize culture and discussed ways culture influences negotiation, which are through the definition of negotiation, negotiation opportunity, selection of negotiators, protocol, communication, time sensitivity, risk propensity e.t.c. The effects of culture on negotiation outcomes, negotiation process, negotiation cognition, and negotiator ethics. The chapter also discussed how to manage cultural differences in negotiation. The negotiation process can only be scale through successfully if the various culture are understood.

Developing leadership communication and strategy, Summary

Team 3
Ajiboye Oyeleke Oyekola
Leadership Communication
Title of chapter: Developing leadership communication and strategy.

Summary & Reflection
For a leader to develop communication strategy in their business, profession and life, a leader must determine his exact goal or purpose of communicating with his audience and then decide the best method of accomplishing his goal, and he must analyze his audience.
To avoid barriers and eliminate the interferences that might prevent effective communication, a leader must:
• Establish a clear purpose
That is, by asking what do you want your audience to know as a result of your message? What do you want them to do?
In establishing a clear purpose, a leader must
1. Clarify his purpose of communicating with his audience.
2. Generate ideas by brainstorming, idea mapping and the use of journalist questions to enhance the content of the communication
3. Think connectively and communicate with his audience

• Determine his communication strategy by considering the communication context, using a strategy framework and creating an action plan.

• Analyze your audience by expertise, decision making style and by organizational context.

• Organize written and oral communication effectively by
1. selecting organizational devices by deduction, induction, chronological, cause/effect, comparison/contrast, problems/ solutions and spatial
2. Using the pyramid principle
3. Creating a story board

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Summaries for leadership communication

TEAM 3

IKEGWUONU NNEKA UZOAMAKA

COMMUNICATION IN LEADERSHIP

CHAPTER 4: DEVELOPING AND DELIVERING LEADERSHIP PRESENTATION

SUMMARY

The leader’s skills are most visible to others when speaking, whether informally, with a few people around a conference room table or formally standing before a large group delivering a prepared presentation. The process for developing leadership presentation includes planning your presentation; prepare your presentation to achieve the greatest impact and presenting effectively and with greater confidence. Your credibility, knowledge and integrity must be without question or you will lose your audience no matter how logical your presentation may be.

In summary, to appear confident and project a positive ethos when presenting, you need to do the following; Focus your energy on your audience, create and maintain rapport, adopt a secure stance, establish and maintain eye contact, project and vary your voice, demonstrate your messages with gestures, Adjust pace of delivery based on the audience response, relax and be yourself.


REFLECTIONS


Leaders must master public speaking becoming comfortable and confident in all kinds of presentation situations so that they project a positive ethos and the best way to project a positive ethos is to believe in what you are saying and to be fully prepared.

I have learnt a lot from this chapter on developing and delivering leadership presentation. I have learnt not to rush into speaking, to take a deep breath and gather my thoughts. I have learnt time management in delivering presentations and establishing eye contact with the Audience .I have also learnt that to project confidence and establish a positive ethos ,I should stand straight and tall, look out at my audience because my stance and posture reflect my attitude toward the subject and my audience.

In conclusion, what I have learnt from this chapter cannot be overemphasized.

EXERCISE 4.2

QUESTION 6

Discuss something you wish you had learned in school but didn't?

I wish we were taught Communication in school as a course. People underrate communication they see it a sending a message through a channel but it is deeper than that. Communication occurs every day, you communicate in the office , meetings, job interview, church, homes and everywhere. But if you do not have right ingredients to communication, then you are not communicating efficiently and effectively. This course on leadership Communication has educated me a lot coupled with the daily presentations. I never knew that gestures and stance, eye contact matters in Communication.So, my gestures and stance reflect my attitude toward my subject, audience and it also reveals my confidence. A leader should assume an open stance with his feet shoulder width apart and his weight evenly distributed.

The leader’s goal should be to maintain a comfortable, relaxed stance, appropriate to the situation



TEAM 3

IKEGWUONU NNEKA UZOAMAKA

LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION

CHAPTER 7: LEADING PRODUCTIVE MEETINGS

SUMMARY

Given the dominance of meetings in business and how often people complain about them, leaders need to be able to plan and conduct effective, productive meetings. In deciding when a meeting is the best forum, you have to consider the purpose, the audience, the setting, determine the topic for the agenda and select attendees.

In conducting a productive meeting, clarify the decision making approach that you plan to use, clarify leader and attendee roles and responsibilities and establish meeting ground rules. The meeting will be more productive if your attendees know and use common problem solving tools such as Brainstorming, Ranking, Edward de Bono’s six thinking hats, decision tree and the matrix e.t.c. Two common problems in meetings are negative thinking and resistance to the ideas of others and these conflicts can be managed by collaborating, compromising, avoiding and accommodating.

Finally, a meeting planner should ensure meetings lead to action by assigning specific task to specific people and following up on action items in a reasonable time.


REFLECTION


Leading productive meetings can only be achieved by putting some measures in place. I think the main factor to consider in leading a productive meeting is the purpose and the audience.

However, to achieve a productive meeting, you should be able to manage meeting problems and conflicts. The primary responsibility of a meeting leader is to plan the meeting, provide the content, anticipate problems and ensure process facilitation. Fulfilling the last responsibility may call for the use of a skilled facilitator.

EXERCISE 7.I

1. Who called the meeting? Finance manager.

2. What was it about? End of month report.

3. Was there an agenda? No, there was not.

4. Was the purpose of the meeting accomplished? Yes it was.

5. After the meeting were minutes distributed that outlined tasks and deadlines? Yes, tasks were given orally with deadlines, it was not documented but it was given during the meeting?

6. During the meeting, what role did you play all or most of the time? I presented the finance report consisting of expenses and inflow; I also mentioned exceptional and extra ordinary items in the account that needs to be deliberated on.

7. What could have been done to make the meeting more effective?

The most important factor that would have made the meeting more effective is Time management, also having an agenda would help to speed things thereby addressing important issues instead of digressing to irrelevant issues. To review all actions and responsibilities at the end of the meeting would have made the meeting more effective.

Finally, ground rules should be established for every meeting, no matter how small or uncomplicated. For instance, the department could have an intensive problem solving culture in which all people are obligated to contribute in meetings or it may have an avoidance culture that conditions people to shy away from any conflict in meetings and avoid openly criticizing or questioning one another. Both could influence how the meeting is managed as well as the outcome


BUILDING AND LEADING HIGH -PERFORMING TEAMS

SUMMARY AND REFLECTION DONE BY

NAME: CHINENYE EZENDU

STUDENT NO: 2

The chapter discussed how to build and lead high performing teams. Forming a team and making sure the team succeeds is important for the growth of the organization. In establishing an effective team, the necessary team work processes has to be followed, such as creating your team charter and the following steps has to be taken into consideration. The team has to have a purpose, each member of the team are to be assigned roles and responsibilities, there has to be ground rules and a proper communication protocol. The team has to make use of actions and follow work plans. A team’s performance will depend on the team being able to deliver results of its work. The chapter also discussed how the people side of teams could be managed; handling team issues and conflicts, helping virtual teams succeed.


REFLECTION


Teams can only be successful if the correct procedures to building effective teams are followed. For a successful team, the right team charters are to be created. A manager that wants to be successful needs to project a purpose, share roles and responsibilities among team members, establish ground rules and follow the right communication protocol. Managers should also possess the ability to manage and facilitate team conflict. In conflict resolution the manager could adopt steps such as

Assessment – Acknowledgement – Attitude – Action - Analysis


DEVELOPING EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND CULTURAL LITERACY TO STRENGHTEN LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION

SUMMARY AND REFLECTION DONE BY

NAME: CHINENYE EZENDU

STUDENT NO: 2

The chapter emphasizes the need for leaders to develop a strong interpersonal skill, develop emotional intelligence and possess cultural literacy to strengthen leadership communication. Emotional intelligence is the ability of a person to identify and manage emotions in ourselves and others, it also transcends to the ability to show flexibility, personal and social problem skill. The chapter illustrated the difference between the affiliative leader and the democratic leader. The first step towards emotional intelligence is self-awareness, the use of psychological profiling instrument such the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) could be used to understand one’s self better, and improving non-verbal skills is also an important factor to be noted. In improving non verbal skills, the following suggestions were made: First, learning about the culture in which you will be interacting. Second, not judging someone’s action out of context or leave the actions unexplored when important to you or the organisation. Third, developing one’s understanding or sensitivity to non-verbal cues. Fourth, observing your own use of nonverbal communication. Other features which a leader should possess should be good listening skills, mentoring others and delivering feedback. Using cultural framework to understand differences is important in effective developing managerial skills.

REFLECTION

Every manager should possess emotional intelligence, it is an important characteristic that drives employee performance, when employees are happy with the managers and the work they do, they would be able to deliver positive results and performance will be high. If a manager cannot accommodate other people’s culture he would not manage them properly and this could arise to a conflict. Thus cultural literacy should be promoted in an organization to strengthen leadership communication.

EXERCISE 6.1:

THE Case: Coaching Employees

What are some of the issues to you resolve before talking to Susan and Hari?

Issues to resolve before talking to Susan and Hari are:

  • Being prepared for the feedback session
  • Developing a strategy and analyze your audience.
  • Facts and unbiased appraisal information must be available.
  • Create a receptive environment.

Should you meet only with both of them individually, with each member of the group, or with everyone at the same time?

All performance feedback should be conducted in a private, one-on-one setting, behind closed doors without interruptions

How should you conduct the session (consider using the GROW model)

GROW

  • Prepare the topic for discussion
  • Agree on specific objective of the session
  • Set long-term aim if appropriate

REALITY

  • Employees assess themselves
  • Offer specific examples of feed-back
  • Avoid or check assumptions
  • Discard irrelevant history

OPTIONS

  • Cover the full range of options
  • Invite suggestions from the employee
  • Offer suggestions carefully
  • Ensure choices are made

WRAP-UP

  • Commit to action
  • Identify possible obstacles
  • Make steps specific and define timing
  • Agree on support

How can you ensure the outcome will be what is best for you and for them?

The method is an objective way of motivating employees at work, if the above method should be used frequently in the organization, employees will have a sense of self belonging and be motivated to carry whatever task assigned to them effectively. A continual feedback delivery is sure to work for any organization.


BUILDING AND LEADING HIGH -PERFORMING TEAMS

SUMMARY AND REFLECTION DONE BY

NAME: CHINENYE EZENDU

STUDENT NO: 2

The chapter discussed how to build and lead high performing teams. Forming a team and making sure the team succeeds is important for the growth of the organization. In establishing an effective team, the necessary team work processes has to be followed, such as creating your team charter and the following steps has to be taken into consideration. The team has to have a purpose, each member of the team are to be assigned roles and responsibilities, there has to be ground rules and a proper communication protocol. The team has to make use of actions and follow work plans. A team’s performance will depend on the team being able to deliver results of its work. The chapter also discussed how the people side of teams could be managed; handling team issues and conflicts, helping virtual teams succeed.


REFLECTION


Teams can only be successful if the correct procedures to building effective teams are followed. For a successful team, the right team charters are to be created. A manager that wants to be successful needs to project a purpose, share roles and responsibilities among team members, establish ground rules and follow the right communication protocol. Managers should also possess the ability to manage and facilitate team conflict. In conflict resolution the manager could adopt steps such as

Assessment – Acknowledgement – Attitude – Action - Analysis


ESTABLISHING LEADERSHIP THROUGH STRATEGIC INTERNAL COMMUNCATION

SUMMARY AND REFLECTION DONE BY

NAME: CHINENYE EZENDU

STUDENT NO: 2

The chapter focuses on establishing leadership through strategic internal communication. For every leader, effective communication is an important criterion to consider. Effective leadership communication provides organisational direction and employee motivation. The chapter also discussed the strategic role of employee communication, assessing employee communication effectiveness, and using mission and visions to strengthen internal communication, the ability to establish and communicate the mission and vision effectively strengthens a person’s in the leading the organization.


REFLECTION


An effective flow of communication in an organization helps the organization to meet its long term goal. Employee are motivated when leaders communicate clearly to them the vision and strategic goals into meaningful terms. Managers should therefore pay adequate attention to internal communication by providing each employee with adequate information and the opportunities to speak out, get involved, be listened to and actively participate.



CHAPTER 10

COMMUNICATION

OMONOSOSE EJEDEWE


This chapter considered elements of the art and science of communication that are useful to understanding negotiations. The chapter started with communication during negotiations as an exchange of preferences about solutions and used some examples to pictured negotiation as a tool of influence between various parties. Three key issues that related to how people communicate in negotiation were elaborated as the use of language, non verbal communication and the selection of a communication channel. The chapter concluded with how to improve communication in negotiation and looked at special communication considerations at the close of negotiation.