techno-leadership 101

in response to my blog post entitled "techno-leadership", in which i discuss what i believe to be the role of technology in leadership,
Dr. Kath has encouraged me to elaborate.

in that blog post, i state that
leadership has a responsibility to harness the full potential of technology
to bring about transformational change:
she'd like to know specifically which technologies.

if i taught a course on leadership and technology, she asked, what would be the course matter?

so here's my faux syllabus- anyone interested?

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CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY

FALL II 09/ IRVINE
OLCU 618- EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES, POTENTIAL AND RESPONSIBILITY IN LEADERSHIP

Instructor
Manuel Guzman
email: guzm4101@mail.chapman.edu


COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• To analyze the methodological ways in which emerging technologies may impact effective transformational leadership in the future.
  
• To consider the challenges of projecting clear goals and vision into a future which is technologically in flux.
  

MAJOR STUDY UNITS

• Cloud Computing: How running programs on the internet eliminates a user's need for computer storage and costly hardware, thereby expanding potential power base demographics.
  
• Ubiquitous Internet: How the move towards saturating cities and eventually rural areas in wireless Internet connectivity may impact large-scale internet use, familiarity and dependability across the masses.
• Digital Content: How tomorrow's leaders will need to embrace digital content and rely upon it to further their efficiency and effectiveness.
• Communications: Determining whether certain technological advances limit or enhance communication.
• Social Networking Sites: How the assembly of online communities necessitates the effective technological deployment of leadership.
  

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okay, so based on the brevity of my syllabus, perhaps i'm not ready to teach a full course...
maybe we'll just make this a seminar or something.

can you guys think of any other Major Study Units?

techno-leadership

take me to your leader?

today, the accelerated churning out of technological innovation is undeniably changing the landscape in which we live, study and work at an exponential rate. this state of constant technological enrichment directly affects the way in which we interact with one another. likewise, as we continue to become more and more interconnected, i believe that our responsibility for each other as fellow citizens in a shrinking world grows, and grows.

given this steady abundance of technological advancement, and hence our new state of global connectivity, i believe that leadership has a very special calling at this moment in our history; a calling laden with urgency, obligation and again, responsibility.

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bring your leader to me.


technological innovations in a corporate setting can mean streamlining various operations and processes. and yes, technological innovations have changed the way the electorate gets to know its political candidates or even casts its votes for them. and again yes, technological innovation has certainly contributed to far more than just that. but the specific impact that i consider to be of utmost importance here, is the powerful impact that technology has on transformational change, and therefore transformational leadership.

technology: (noun). the process by which humans modify nature to meet their wants and needs.

transformational leadership: (noun). leadership that creates valuable and positive change in the followers.

at no time in our history have we ever been as plagued as we are now with such dire crises and threats against our civilization. and at no time in our history have we ever been so powerful to lead by virtue of technological robustness. it is therefore at this very moment in our history that our leaders must harness the full potential of technology to affect large-scale transformation.

if you consider that among the many other benefits of our technological advancement, leaders are now capable of virtual interaction, forming virtual meeting places, and of being across the world in a matter of hours, there is no excuse for inaction or ineffectiveness any longer. it is no longer as simple as following the leader; but how effectively the leader follows you.

people long for the sort of leadership that will help create common identity, goals and a cohesive story; leadership that will get us out of this mess. this is precisely that calling for leadership i referred to above. it is perhaps a matter of life and death. a matter we are responsible to address.

women & leadership... & me

part i
the b word or stylistic differences

yesterday, during a casual conversation with a friend in which i mentioned the topic women in leadership, she added dejectedly:

"why is it that while men are praised and rewarded, women are often called b*****s for carrying out the exact same management behaviors which ultimately lead to success?"

the cynicism caught me off guard, as she's generally a very positive person. yet the question deserved attention. it is, after all, a question rooted in the common experience of women who have received poor reviews or evaluations for the same job performance where men did not. it is a question whose examination and research has shown in fact that men and women are equally effective leaders overall.

yet while affirming the credentials of both men and women in leadership, the same research has also helped us identify important differences in the leadership styles of men and women. and while identifying these styles and classifying them as masculine and feminine, autocratic and democratic, task-oriented or interpersonally-oriented, the research has also shown that to a small extent, women and men are more effective in leadership roles that are congruent with their gender; to state it another way, women are less effective in roles which have been heavily masculinized, and vice-versa.

part ii
style, over time


tonight, another friend- an employee at a traditional Wall Street private equity group, offered a few relevant and interesting observations, somewhat coincidentally. she hadn't known that i'd been thinking about stylistic leadership differences between the genders, but only that I'd been thinking about women in leadership in general.

the very first thing she shared was an observation that among the relatively few women in management positions at her company, she had noticed a difference in their levels of friendliness, involvement and approachability that she described as generational*. prodding her further, she went on to acknowledge that along those same generational lines, the previously unheard of tendency for men to exude a participative and more "feminine" style of leadership (as opposed to the dominant "command-and-control" style) was more and more apparent.

in essence, her observations support the fact that in our society, styles of leadership deemed feminine have become more valued and accepted as effective over time and across gender lines.

*she elaborated on this observation, but i'm far too scared to offend in my attempt to accurately paraphrase.
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part iii
why the confusion?


fusing these conversations together sheds significant light on the subject for me. the truth is, i've never considered leadership style as feminine or masculine. i've never really considered the possibility that women may perceive their challenges in leadership efficiency as gender-based.

as a child of the 80s, i grew up with Sandra Day O'Connor; we sent American women to space; we got Oprah and when Madonna stared into the camera on MTV and declared matter-of-factly "i want to rule the world", i thought it non-controversial and believed that she ultimately would.

and while i must insist that i'm certainly not as naive as all that, perspective is key.

and so, from my perspective, why did it surprise me that my two women friends were so conscious of the inequities women still face as leaders today? did i assume that because women had achieved so much to date in education, politics and the labor market there should be no room for dissatisfaction? well, did i?

epi(b)logue

and if that question is interesting to you, then you should see the new (somewhat controversial) Huffington Post series by Marcus Buckingham What's Happening to Women's Happiness?
i'll be following along to see where he goes with this. maybe more entries down the line to this effect.

mmmmm, donuts

there's something i should tell you up front if we're to have any sort of meaningful, honest and productive dialogue:

(ahem)
before this week, i never had read or seriously considered any theories, perspectives or studies of leadership whatsoever. really- not ever.

okay, so maybe it's not the end of the world, but this little fact of my leadership-theory-ignorance was the haunting theme of my weekend. picture me sitting around with the texts, stupefied, acting out in Homer Simpson-like forehead-smacks: "management and leadership are different? leadership is not an inherent trait? people are actually discussing this? arguing about this? d'oh!"

i refrained from being too hard on myself; after all, i was grateful to be submerged in the material now. it just frustrated me to think that i could have checked this stuff out sooner. questions i obsessed over: "in my organization, have i been anything like a leader up to this point? am i responsible for leadership problems there? imagine the sort of leader i'd be today if only..."

and then, drenched in sweat, i reached a better understanding (clarity for me, derived from a 4-mile run: picture Homer Simpson after tv, beer and donuts). three years of raw experience, without an academic framework, is much more valuable than i had first thought. my real-life experiences form the frame of reference i consult when alone with the texts; they are my personal case studies and an untapped well of material for me to examine in the months to come.

and that is my confession. that i at once felt scared by what i didn't know, and motivated by what i had discovered i did know. i'm hooked on the material thus far. and i'm pretty certain that i chose the right program of study. the end.

***
if my first blog entry was successful, it would have accurately depicted a student enthralled by new material; a student at first intimidated by what he did not know, and at last confident that the knowledge gap was perhaps not as large as he'd initially feared.
additional criteria to the success of this entry: not losing any of you in defending my right to "non-caps" (proper nouns exempt), as well as with my gratuitous Simpsons references, of which there will probably be more to come.