PREPARING THE SELF Activity Instructions In order to prepare one\'s self to be a

Question

PREPARING THE SELF

Activity Instructions

In order to prepare one's self to be a true leader in the global arena, individuals must know how they measure up with respect to the level of their leadership competencies. The intent of this discussion is to allow you as an individual to identify how you "measure up" to Gardner's five minds.

In an open and honest discussion, create a list of your level of competency (strengths and areas to improve on) with respect to each of the five minds listed below. Provide your thoughts on ways to further develop and improve your five minds. Also, remember to provide examples in your discussion. Address your competency regarding the following:

The disciplined mind: The ability to delve deep that is associated with expertise in a certain field of scholarship or the professions.

The synthesizing mind: The ability to pick and choose among an array of information from several disciplines so that the resulting explanation makes sense.

The creating mind: The ability to go beyond existing knowledge to forge new ground, "pose new questions, offer new solutions" (Gardner, 2006, p. 156).

The respectful mind: The ability to appreciate and welcome all forms of diversity.

The ethical mind: The ability to seek both good work and good citizenship.

Explanation / Answer

In order to develop one's competencies and be a true leader, a person needs to use several thinking hats all at the same time or depending on the situation. The measure one's competence and improve the leadership abilities further Howard Gardner came up with a theory of Five minds. That a leader should be able to use five thinking hats as a leader. The abilities required under each of these thinking hats will be different. All these or a combination of these can be used simultaneously depending on the situation on hand.

The Disciplined Mind

The Disciplined Mind allows one to delve deep into a subject for finding or providing solutions. This is a distinctive mode of cognition that characterizes a specific scholarly discipline, a craft or a profession. The person should be disciplined enough to work continuously over time to improve skill or understanding without which the individual is destined to dance to somebody else's tunes.

The major competencies required to use this thinking Hat are disciplined approach, mastery in the craft or profession.

For example a Banker needs to have the necessary mastery in his profession be it Lending, Foreign Exchange Operations, Operations etc. This mastery is acquired over the period by steadily working in the particular field and also the necessary subject knowledge. Say for example one is working in Lending / Credit operations, unless he has the necessary mastery over the basic accounting principles, market conditions, at least a rudimentary knowledge of the industry / profession to which the money is going to be lent, there is every probability of the loan ending in default or a fraud is perpetrated by the borrower.

The Synthesizing Mind

This thinking Hat is the ability to take information from various sources but pick out only the necessary data out of the vast amount of information available and synthesize a solution or arrive at a solution. The picking and choosing of the information needs to be done objectively (without any bias) and put together in such a way that it makes sense to both the person synthesizing the information and others who are going to use the same.

This ability is going to be more valuable in the present time as well as in future as vast amounts of information which is ever growing is available to people from various sources.

The abilities / competencies required for this thinking Hat are objectivity, clarity of thought, ability to sift information and pick the necessary bits and combining the same to arrive at a situation where the data synthesized is clear and useful to both the synthesizer as well other users.

There may be any number of examples for this kind of ability in real life. For example a detective in a crime scene gets a lot of information from several eye witnesses, CCTV footage if any, data from forensic experts etc. It is the job of the detective to knit together the bits and pieces of evidence from the vast amount of information to arrive at the motive and details of the modus operandi so that the case can be presented to the Jury (the users of information) to arrive at the same conclusion as himself and take the case to the logical end.

Another example can be the sunrise profession of data analytics. Here vast amount of data is available about say the consumers like their habits regarding the type of goods they purchase, quantities they purchase, the timings during which the shops / malls are crowded, the preferred methods of payments, the shopping habits like purchasing online or in a physical shop etc. By analysing this data one can arrive at some conclusions like purchasing habits of a consumer, how he is shopping, when he is shopping etc. This can be used for some targeted advertisements to further increase the sales of those goods.

The Creating Mind

The creating mind goes beyond the existing knowledge to forge new knowledge and break new ground. The creating mind builds on from where the synthesizing mind left. The creating mind puts on new ideas, poses unfamiliar questions or those which were not thought about earlier, conjures fresh ways of thinking and arrives at unexpected answers. The creating minds seek to be at least one step ahead of everyone and be in unchartered territory most of the time.

In effect the competencies required here are thinking out of the box, accepting failures in addition to having faith in one's conviction.

All the innovations which came into the markets are out of the creating minds. For example the steam engine was first created by this out of box thinking. Every one might have seen the built-up steam moving a plate on a vessel or lid of a kettle. But this was taken forward by one creative mind to manufacture a steam engine which became a backbone of the First Industrial Revolution in Europe. Creation of a Face Book as a social networking platform in the very recent past by its creators was due to such out of box thinking. There were chat rooms, emails etc., available for so many years on the internet. But it is the out of the box thinking by the Face Book creator has created a new segment like social networking platform.

The Respectful Mind

To be a leader on a Global platform, one should have the respect to thoughts of others. A Global leader encounters employees from many ethnic origins with different ways of thought processes or accustomed to looking at the same problem in a different way. To be a successful leader on a Global platform one should be tolerant to different human groups, ability to understand them and seek to work effectively with them. For example a person from USA might be looking at a problem in one way and tries to find a solution for the same based on his knowledge, experiences based in that country while another person from a different country will look at the same problem based on his own experiences and the way he was trained to think in his country. Often both these persons may arrive at radically different solutions (this happens most of the times in human relations problems). It is the responsibility of the leader to take into account both the solutions and arrive at (synthesize) a solution which may be acceptable to both.

All the managers who are working in a multinational environment needs this thinking Hat every day.

The Ethical Mind

The Ethical Mind focusses on the ability to recognise good work without any prejudice or bias. It also ponders and encourages usefulness of one's work to the society at large. This mind conceptualises how to look for solutions which are over and above the self-interest and for the overall benefit of the society. One should be ethical and even ready to overlook the personal interest for the common good of the society.

Examples can be founds among several persons running charitable organisations or scientists. One example is Frederick Banking and his team who patented the method of manufacturing insulin which is used in treating Diabetes but gave away the rights to the University of Toronto so that this can be used to further medical research.

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