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A B E R D E E N B U S I N E S S S C H O O L

Master of Business Administration

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNEMENT

Module 2014/2015: BSM116

Leadership, Communication and Change

Pedro Nóbrega – student number 1315223

13/07/2015

2086 words 1st part

2272 words 2nd part

27 pages

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01. INTRODUCTION

This assignment is divided in two parts. In the first a reflection is made about three

selected leaderships phenomena that happen in RGU leadership day on 23rd May

2015, and the second part is an analysis of the leadership style implemented in the

DeRose Method — an ancient philosophy based in Hindu roots.

Leadership has many faces and many expressions, and it is present in every day of

our lives. It contemplates the role of the leader at some stages, but also that of the

follower, and sometimes it studies the interconnection of both roles, simultaneously.

So every individual needs to manage the knowledge of leadership wisely both from

the leader’s and follower’s point of view, as leadership is one the most important

tools that the individual needs to gain, learn, improve and keep updating.

“Leadership is the process of influencing others to understand and agree about what

needs to be done and how to do it, and the process of facilitating individual and

collective efforts to accomplish shared objectives” (Yukl, 2010, pg. 26).

In addition, the “leadership role is difficult, because the decision process will be

adversely affected if the leader is either too passive or too domineering (Yukl, 2010,

pg. 387).

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02. PART ONE

Carefully analyze the leadership experience that you will have during the activities

day during leadership week in May. This is a day long experiential event facilitated by

the army, and is designed to test your leadership and team building skills in practice.

Describe what you did, what you learned and what you could have done better.

Focus on such key leadership issues as: communication, team dynamics,

influencing others, sharing information, agreeing tasks and objectives. Relate

your analysis to a relevant body of academic literature in the subject areas you are

discussing. This can be found through the designated textbook (Yukl, 2010), and the

other reading material to which you have been referred.

The three phenomena selected are: influence and communication, direct leadership,

participative leadership.

a) Influence and Communication

Leadership is communication. It is not only communication of the verbal or written

type, but also includes things such as behaviour, environment and non-verbal

messages (feelings, energy flow, mood, etc.).

Above all, communication is the main catalyst for motivating or demotivating

followers. Nevertheless followers need to ask themselves the kind of communication

they are getting (for instance, if they stand aside they are not communicating).

In the Water Challenge (3rd activity in group D), a leader was appointed (the

youngest person in the group) and from the start the communication was weak and

the strategy vague. Also, confidence in the speech was missing. As a result, in the

middle of the game the leader wanted to redirect the strategy and felt a considerable

difficulty in being listened to. The team was spread and focused on the task, without

specific roles having been defined and without a strong strategy.

In the end the team managed to complete the assignment, but this was a clear

example of lack of planning and vision, lack of communication, lack of trust in the

abilities of the leader and lack of influence. The followers were trying to help the

leader but ended up going adrift in individual tasks, instead of a collective one.

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Definitely the followers’ expectations of the leader’s skills were weak from the start,

maybe due to him being the youngest, and that reflected on the perceptions about

him.

The leader and, to some extent, the followers should be managing expectations all

along by communicating more extensively.

As a comparison, in the Balance Ball Challenge (2nd activity in group D), with a

different leader (older, more communicative and native of English) the team

performance was considerable better, due to trust, better communication and

leadership being divided by more leaders within the organisation.

v Lessons Learned

v Often potential leaders don´t know how to project themselves: communication

is lacking. Normally those people have a huge potential in themselves but

they don´t know how to communicate the feelings, their system of values,

their vision.

v As a leader, if you want things to change direction, but don’t seem to manage

it, maybe you´re not communicating right. So in this case you must change

your message. To a certain degree if followers are not being heard, leaders

need to change their message.

“One of the most important and difficult leadership responsibilities is to guide and

facilitate the process of making a major change in an organization. People tend to

resist major change for many reasons. (…) Before people support radical change,

they need to have a vision” (Yukl, 2010, pg. 326, 327).

From Boonstra’s (2004, pg. 33) point of view “all approaches to change must

address a key issue inherent in organizations: why they are so stable and resistant to

change. Knowing how to change organizations start from understanding the

conditions that promote the status quo or no change”.

v Leaders must project influence. They don´t need power or authority, but do

need influence. Leadership is all about your ability to influence.

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Yukl (2010, pg. 233) underlines “that power and influence behaviour can be regarded

as separate constructs, even though they are interrelated in complex ways. The most

effective influential tactic is thru “rational persuasion, consultation, collaboration, and

inspirational appeals”.

Nevertheless, Perloff (2010, pg. 12) emphasizes, “that persuasion does not

automatically or inevitably succeed. (…) Persuaders must intend to change another

individuals attitude or behaviour and must be aware (at least at some level) that

they´re trying to accomplish this goal”.

v Leadership is about followers. There were some signs of disengagement.

Leaders need to keep all the team on board.

Nathalie Salles (2015), in her monthly overview about leadership emphasizes the

importance of keeping everyone engaged and in the loop. That is essential for

projecting success. The leader’s goal is “to learn who followers are so you can

successfully navigate personalities and work out the best strategy for each person

ensuring that each member feels valued, works effectively, while keeping the larger

project goals on target” (Nathalie Salles, 2015).

v If leaders don´t send the message and the goal, followers are not going to

execute correctively the task and will be disaligned with global strategy.

v The group was mainly concerned with the task and disregarded the individual

and slightly the team.

v The team ended up complicating the task instead of simplifying it. The first

step is to understand the scope of the task, to understand the skills and the

people needed, allocating them accordingly (strengths and weaknesses), and

communicating as you go along.

b) Direct Leadership

Another phenomena that caught my attention was the Direct Leadership. This was

presented in the Grand National challenge (5th activity in group D – first part).

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The leader was proved to be competent by remembering all the names. It had

credibility. This situation is comparable with the one when the boss is the leader that

has already done the job.

However life isn´t as easy as that, where you are blind and ignorant. Nevertheless,

ironically leaders love that. They absolutely love to be that clear, because all the

books talk about being clear.

Many experts address the fact that followers tend to be ambivalent about what they

do; they tend to wait for their boss to tell them what to do. This almost describes

today’s environment where many people act blindly and stupidly, where there is

always someone telling you what to do (two steps forward, two steps back). An

example in a typical firm’s life would be to lay off people at work, just because

someone told us to do it.

This kind of leadership is called Direct Leadership, where someone has the answer

to everything. This person is the authority, has the credibility and has been elected to

that. Direct leadership means followers doing exactly and blindly what the leaders

command, according to the idea that if you don´t have direct leadership you will have

rebellions.

If you took the blind off someone and that someone could see, they would probably

say: if they are going to the circle I will go to, and before you know it all others (not

blinded) will start to thing and doing their own stuff and that´s fine until the leader say

“get back”. “It´s obvious what I need to do, why do I need to wait for you to tell me”.

But this seems like business in the real sense… The minute someone has the

initiative to do something the leader ask you why?

Leaders are petrified about followers to have their own way of thinking and doing

things, of people getting out of the arrangement.

v Lessons Learned

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v Direct Leadership is simpler, since it´s easy manageable (two steps forward,

two steps right). It works very well and followers feel very involved and happy

about participation.

v However if the task is more complex and the followers are not either blind,

unintelligent or ignorant and they want to take part, directiveness won´t really

work. It only works when you´re standing at someone and you´re the only

person that is supposed to know the answer.

v In Direct Leadership if the leader doesn´t know something he/she will tend to

pretend they do, so you’ll think he is right but most of the time he/she is not.

Performance will gradually decline, as you are not choosing the best options.

v There are better ways to approach this job. If followers are not blind,

someone could say: why don´t we all take five steps forward. In this scenario

you have created the awareness and engagement in the problem solving.

Now the leader is impotent because followers have better answers to the

task.

v Leadership is not technologically based. If I believe that technical logical need

to be the trend I´m knacker. For instance O&G industry is technologically

based and it´s hugely technologically grounded. Technology rules in a so-

called technocracy. Some O&G leaders say that for leadership to be relevant

it must be technology-focused, which means it has to underpin objectives.

What this basically means, is that direct leadership is all the way. O&G

companies want to control everyone and love the fact that everyone goes two

steps forward, to steps back.

Nathalie Salles (2015) goes further to say that “As a Leader don’t instantly insist that

your technical solution is the only right way. There’s more to consider ... like

company goals, team morale, speed of execution, cost-effectiveness. Being right

must now reflect the big picture. If there are multiple ways to achieve the outcome or

solution, your job is to consider all of them.”

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c) Participative leadership

Another phenomenon that caught my attention was the kind of leadership that was

presented in the Grand National challenge (5th activity in group D – second part).

In this activity who was the sector that had the best knowledge to win the task? Was

it the leader at the back or the people at the front line? It was the person out in front

because he/she could see what was coming (besides, the leader was in the “danger”

zone and there had already been someone in the safe zone for five minutes).

So for the leader to be successful he/she needs to Delegate, Trust, Empower and

maintaining Communication. To some, extended Communication is not telling what

to do, but learning and listening. It´s about encouraging.

Leaders need to express the will to do it fairly, and in the end, at least (either the

teams win or loose), there will be a good culture implemented. If leaders give up on

their conduct values, in the future it will become impossible to control behaviour.

In this challenge the team ended up practicing Participative Leadership, since the

leader encouraged the followers and made it easy for them to make their own

decisions. However “Participation is unlikely to be effective if potential participants do

not share the leader’s objectives, if they do not want to take responsibility for helping

to make decisions, if they distrust the leader” (Yukl, 2010, pg. 162).

“Followers are more likely to be effective if they view themselves as active and

independent rather than passive and dependent on the leader”. (Yukl, 2010, pg. 260)

v Lessons Learned

v Leadership is not about answering technical issues and being caught up in

operational problems (e.g. having your hands tied in the end).

v If leaders don´t set the right tone (e.g. like educating children) bad behaviour

will emerge and you can´t get rid of bad behaviour unless you decide to blind

everyone (“Just do as I said!”).

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v The key idea for the leader at the back is to maintain communication,

encouraging people, and fostering the sense of respect. (“What do we have

to do?”). So from the leader position he/she is asking: tell me what to do and

what we need to do, what is the task.

Vicent Icheku (2011, pg. 13) stresses that “any successful action in life will depend

on the quality of the decision made, and quality of the decision will depend on

relevant knowledge”.

v Leaders need to maintain the strategic alignment, within all things. Leaders

need to think about encouragement and safety (personal safety of followers

included).

v Leadership is not about telling people what to do, and giving them answers.

That´s a tiny thing about the job. It´s 5% of your daytime. Most of it is about

standing back, watching people in the front doing it, encouraging them, so the

conduct is there, the obstacles are correctively driven, there is transparency

in communication and you support them.

There are many different ways to lead. In this challenge the leader had the option to

implement command and control. This kind of leadership is goal-oriented,

authoritative, decisive and sets clear tasks.

v Leadership is about anticipating, participation, involvement and engagement,

it´s not only about direction and technical knowledge.

v There is a point at which management stops doing its job, and that is when

Leadership emerges throughout behaviours, strategy, conduct, ethics and

influence. (e.g. when the other team is trying do cheat).

v Overall success is not dependent on your own success only, instead is tied to

everyone else’s — to everyone’s line of commitment and conduct (out at the

front line and at the back).

v At the front line someone can be doing something the leaders don´t know

about, so communication becomes more important and it absolutely must

flow both ways.

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Conclusions about the reflections

There are several conclusions that can be added to the lessons learned, within the

context of the simple activities that the team had to face. Among them I will stress the

following:

• Leadership itself becomes a verb and not a noun. It becomes a property of

the team and not a property of the individual. You can have multiple leaders

acting in the name of leadership.

• The role of the leader is to remember to get higher than the task, higher than

the technical details. Don´t get caught in doing the job.

“Leadership and management are qualitatively different and mutually exclusive. (…)

Managers are concerned about how things get done, and they try to get people to

perform better. Leaders are concerned with what things mean to people, and they try

to get people to agree about the most important things to be done” (Yukl, 2010, pg.

25).

Bennis and Nanus (1985, pg. 21) proposed that “managers are people who do things

right, and leaders are people who do the right thing.”

• Everyone in the team is vital to put one step after the other, but the leaders

change themselves and stay themselves different by remembering the

purpose of the task.

• Leadership is about transmitting values, ethics, conducts and behaviour, and

keeping people aligned with that, and not allowing people to follow an

“anything goes” attitude in the pursuit of winning.

• A team is not a team right from the very beginning. It takes team building,

defining roles, mutual trust. It takes time.

“Some essential leadership processes in teams include building commitment for

shared objectives, identifying effective performance strategies and organizing team

activities, enhancing member skills and role clarity, building mutual trust and

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cooperation, identifying and procuring needed resources, maintaining confidence and

optimism, and facilitating external coordination” (Yukl, 2010, pg. 386).

• At the end of the day the roles where defined and leadership was happening

naturally. Some people were automatically pointed out as being leaders,

according to their performances in previous tasks, as they stood out

successfully.

“The success of a team also depends in part on its capacity to learn from experience.

Two types of group processes that can facilitate team learning are after-activity

reviews and dialogue sessions” (Yukl, 2010, pg. 386).

• Groups were mainly focused on the task, then on the team and in the end in

the individual, and very often the last part was quite simply ignored. Maybe

you end up doing things that you may not be comfortable doing (like being

hugged) — But you do them on behalf of the team.

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03. PART TWO

Select either a personal experience you have had as a leader or follower, or a

publicly available leadership experience (such as a leader’s account of their own

behaviours in a book or in the media). Again, analyze the experience in question,

focusing on the key leadership issues studied in this course. Discuss what

happened, drawing attention to the key lessons that you have drawn about effective

leadership practice. Once more, relate your analysis to a relevant body of academic

literature.

The second part of the assignment is based on an analysis of a leadership style

implemented in the DeRose Method, currently with more than fifty thousand followers

worldwide.

The DeRose Method was created by Master DeRose in the 1960s, bearing the

name, then, of Swásthya Yôga, an ancient philosophy of life, but evolved through the

years and currently is established in more than ten countries with an incredible

increase in the number of followers (students, instructors and professors).

Definitely DeRose is one the most influential persons in Brazil and on the Yôga

societies nowadays, and his work will go down in history as an important heritage for

the next generations.

Thanks to a singular vision and a unique leadership method the number of followers

has skyrocketed in the last decades.

“Some people are natural leaders, endowed with certain traits not possessed

by other people. Early leadership theories attributed managerial success to

extraordinary abilities such as tireless energy, penetrating intuition, uncanny

foresight, and irresistible persuasive powers” (Yukl, 2010 pg. 30).

There aren´t as many articles written about DeRose as there should be. Only some

elements can be found in English (through Google and YouTube). As a complement

to those elements I´ve added, in Appendix 1, a global overview of the DeRose

Method in terms of leadership. It is important to bear in mind that this is an ancient

philosophy and that some of the lessons are taught only by experience, by example,

from Master to Disciple. Nevertheless I´ve tried to address some of the most

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important issues about leadership in the DeRose Method, and had Eduardo

Saldanha, the Director of Lisbon School in Portugal, revise the document.

The DeRose Method is a philosophy of self-knowledge, a culture, an egregore

(“Egregore” is a Greek word, meaning to ensure, to watch. That is how the spiritual

force created from the sum of the collective energies (mental, emotional) fruit of the

congregation of two or more people is called. The term can also describe a field of

extra physical energies created in the astral plane from the energy emitted by a

group of people through their vibrational patterns”, in Wikipedia). The kind of

Leadership implemented in the DeRose Method places philosophy at the center of

the individual.

Smircich & Morgan (1982, pg. 258) stress, “Leadership is realized in the

process whereby one or more individuals succeed in attempting to frame and

define the reality of others”. Schein (1992, pg. 2) adds that “Leadership is the

ability to step outside the culture (…) to start evolutionary change processes

that are more adaptive.”

To some extend DeRose aims to change the world. Not the WORLD in

general terms but your world. The perception of leadership and followers is

of the utmost importance for the DeRose Method, but only through a

composition of several theories can it be suitable to define the Leadership in

place.

DeRose (2009) expresses that it “is the culture that is missing, and wants to make an

effective action (…) without indoctrination and without repression (…) by example”. It

aims to “synchronize all the elements that constitute the human being. Not only body

and mind, but body, energy, bio-energy, emotional, the mind and the intuition”

One of the options is to classify it as Ethical Leadership. Yukl (2010, pg. 353)

states, “Ethical leadership includes efforts to encourage ethical behaviour as

well as efforts to stop unethical practices. Ethical leaders seek to build

mutual trust and respect among diverse followers (…). Such leaders do not

foster distrust or play favorites to gain more power or achieve personal

objectives” (Yukl, 2010, pg. 353).

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In terms of vision DeRose (2009) underlines that “I don´t know if I would say

visionary, because our work is extremely grounded, it is very objective orientated, it

deals directly with individuals in the world they live in”.

Nevertheless the individual needs a vision, a motivation, so DeRose (2009)

emphasizes “the vision is the journey. Take pleasure in the trip and this way you

arrive faster. If a person just keeps thinking: I have to get there, it´s my destiny, my

destiny, my destiny the trip becomes unpleasant and seems longer. Don´t worry

about the goal, let´s enjoy the trip - the community, people in the system, educated

people, beautiful people”.

DeRose leadership can be also viewed as Charismatic Leadership. Yukl

(2010, pg. 294) highlights that “Charismatic leaders arouse enthusiasm and

commitment in followers by articulating a compelling vision and increasing

follower confidence about achieving it. Attribution of charisma to the leader is

more likely if the vision and strategy for attaining it are innovative, the leader

takes personal risks to promote it, and the strategy appears to be

succeeding”

“Positive charismatics seek to instill devotion to ideological goals and are

more likely to have a beneficial influence on the organization” (Yukl, 2010,

pg. 294).

Nevertheless, the theories of transformational and charismatic leadership

emphasize that emotional processes are as important as rational processes,

and symbolic actions are as important as instrumental behaviour. (Yulk,

2010, pg. 294)

To some extent DeRose is also a Transformational Leader, since he has

identified the needed change, created a vision and created an inspiration.

The leadership enhances the personal motivation and morale.

On top of that DeRose (2009) points out that “Team and individual need to co-exist,

but only if it maintain the liberty of the individual… Normally the collective implies that

the individual is secondary.” This coexistence only exists “as long as it does not hurt

anyone and is founded on tolerance”.

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Overall, the DeRose culture wants to implement a more aware, lucid and active

individual at all levels in society.

It can also be seen as Authentic Leadership. Yukl (2010, pg. 353) states,

“Authentic leadership theory describes an ideal leader whose behaviour is

guided by strong positive values. The theories all emphasize the importance

of leader consistency between values and behaviour. The positive values

include honesty, altruism, kindness, compassion, empathy, fairness,

gratitude, humility, courage, optimism, and resilience” (Yukl, 2010, pg. 353).

Leadership is Lead. It is an action against the other. The DeRose Method aims in the

first instance to put the person as the leader of his own emotional heritage.

“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you

become a leader, success is all about growing others." Jack Welch, former

GE chairman

The leader is the one who contaminates others by example. Leadership is example.

There is no other way. Whatever the Leader is the base is always the example.

Example instigates others to be. There isn´t a great leader only with words.

The Transformational Leadership role modeling for followers is important in

order to inspire them and raise their interest in the project.

In the DeRose Method, Leadership puts human condition at the centre; the human

being and the cell as responsible for their actions. Leaders determine actions, our

own actions and others’ actions. The goal is to act and not to react.

Again the theory of Transformational Leadership is present, since it

challenges followers to take greater ownership for their work.

“Transforming leaders seek to raise the consciousness of followers by

appealing to ideals and moral values rather than to materialistic desires or

negative emotions such as fear and jealousy” (Yukl, 2010, pg. 353).

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Deconstructing the human species, the individual's unconscious captures lots of

information: subliminal information, which means that sometimes nothing actually

happens but everyone senses a strange environment, an atmosphere.

As individuals we tend to set apart the people we love/like from the ones we do not

love/like. One of the great lessons of leadership in the DeRose method is that we

need one other, the statuses of friend or enemy being only a matter of intensity.

Enter one of the leading secrets to deal with people whom you do not feel linked to,

or people that can cause you harm, or your enemies. In this scenario you can

enforce FAR CORDIALITY without intimacy.

The Leadership DeRose method goes further, taking into account that we are all

animals. The question of authority is critical (a person who loves you and is too close

to you will find that you have little authority over him/her). Intimacy changes the

forces of power.

DeRose in Portugal Festival 2015 stress, “We lead as an anarchy, with hierarchy and

with meritocracy”. “We are an organized chaos”. “The goal is that the leader lead

leaders”.

“Subordinate satisfaction, commitment, and performance are usually higher

when the relationship is favorable. Some differentiation of exchange

relationships with subordinates may be necessary, but too much can be

detrimental” (Yukl, 2010, pg. 259).

Leadership teaches us that behind the social cover and good manners we are all

animals. The animal has the ego and ego always tries to impose.

“Conflict is a persistent feature of organizational life (…). When people share

a workplace, such that their efforts are in some measure interdependent,

differences in values, goals, strategies and priorities easily lead to tension,

create unease and put individuals on their guard” (Hargie, 2004, pg. 286)

The DeRose Method teaches us that the initial process in any relationship is to keep

some distance. That's why one of the first lessons is blindfolding the student /

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instructor and assign them a mission like lifting an object. The aim is to regulate the

ego, conveying a sublime message that there is a hierarchy.

On the one hand you want a free ego like a wild horse, but on the other hand you

want to have power and command over it, to ride it.

The secret is to keep the egos in a healthy state both in leaders and followers. I need

to manage my heritage and my qualities in my relation with the others. I have to

understand my animal essence and that the animals compete with each other.

The leadership of the DeRose Method is root-based, goes to the base of the

individual. “[It] doesn´t care whether it is authoritarian or participatory, does not

bother to fit in other theoretical models” (Eduardo Saldanha, 2015).

Huczynski (2004, chapter 10) stresses that “Behaviour includes all aspects of

a person that can be directly observed by another (timekeeping, production,

output, absense) while excluding everything that cannot (their personality,

attitudes, believes, values and motivation). The Behaviour modification

approach argues that you do not need to change the person but some

aspects of their behaviour”.

The DeRose Method underpins that the individual needs to go further, until

its bases for a change to be sustainable in the long run.

The Leadership in the DeRose Method is nonetheless hierarchical, as caste-applied

in India. We can even understand the human body as also a caste: the brain gets the

better, keeping the sugar we eat. On the other hand, fat goes into the belly and the

metals go to the feet. So the brain has the most refined functions, meaning it is the

upper caste. There is a caste division in our body.

In contrast to transformational leadership, transactional leadership styles

focus on the use of rewards and punishments in order to achieve compliance

from followers.

To some extent the DeRose Method embodies a little of transformational and

transactional theories, since it tries to change and shape the future, but the

hierarquical structure between elements (master, professor, teacher,

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instructor and student) is very present, and the lower level can be punished

and rewarded accordingly. Such is crucial to control the animal essence.

To some extent the forces of powers are present. Yukl (2010, pg. 232)

emphasizes that “Effective leaders rely more on personal power than on

position power. Nevertheless, position power is still important, and it interacts

in complex ways with personal power to determine a leader’s influence on

subordinates”.

In the works of Machiavelli, the author analyses two leaders in a company (the

counterparts to the modern CEO). In moment one, leader A is extremely drastic and

hard, and leader B is condescending. In moment two leader A turns condescending

and leader B is hard. What happens is that leader B is fired as the leader A is loved

forever. Leader A gave himself to respect ... Unconsciously this means he dares to

put you in his own place.

Leadership is about people not about procedures.

Grint (2001) stresses that “the power of leaders rests not in themselves, as a

possession, but in their followers, as a network of relationships”.

Initially give more distance and only later give more "love" and not vice versa. At first

display a distant cordiality. In ancient Hindu systems the most unpleasant person

was the oldest master (higher scale).

"The challenge of leadership is to be strong, but not rude; to be kind, but not

weak; to be bold, but not bully; to be thoughtful, but not lazy; to be humble,

but not timid; to be proud, but not arrogant; to have humor, but without folly."

Jim Rohn, entrepreneur, author and motivational speaker

Knowing that the individual is never 100% (Sometimes 70%, or 60%, or even 20%),

you should always do your best. But it is at this point that you realize the category of

human beings.

From the DeRose Method perspective, leaders in general just lead the way they are,

with their own shape and style. There are several leadership courses, various

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teachings methods, but in real life people end up not putting to practice what they

have learned.

The DeRose Method moves to the individual bases in order to also change the

leadership skills and style.

“To be successful, a leader also needs interpersonal, cognitive, and technical

skills (…) including emotional intelligence, social intelligence, systems

thinking, and the ability to learn and adapt to change” (Yukl, 2010 pg. 74).

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04. GENERAL CONCLUSION

Inevitably several conclusions can be derived from this assignment. But which ones

will stay with you for life? They may be summed up as follows:

• Communication is the driver to success;

• There are many ways to lead. There is no correct one;

• It is important to bear in mind the different kinds of leadership, and their

suitability in the short, medium and long run. They also produce different

results;

• The human condition needs to be present in every one of them, some being

more strict than others;

• Cultural values and beliefs influence the leader and the followers’ behaviour;

• Leadership must be consistent with the team’s (company’s) objective;

• Leaders need to make critical decisions;

• Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers;

• Leaders have the hard task of setting the vision, unifying the team, and

building the structure;

• Leadership is not a verb — it is a noun. It must be developed and updated

every day;

• Leaders need to Lead, managers need to manage. The difference is gigantic.

Don´t be caught in this trap;

However if in the one hand Leadership can be taught, on the other hand it is also a

part of each person’s foundation, and, in that sense, not easily taught. That is why

nowadays most of the companies give so much attention to soft skills, instead of your

professional skills. Working on them is a big individual challenge.

Finally to bridge the gap between these concepts and the reality of the Oil and Gas

industry it is important to emphasize that despite the fact that the industry is used to

Direct Leadership (“just do it as I told you to”), the last thing that O&G needs in these

challenging days are blind and inefficient decisions.

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Bibliography and references: Bennis, W. G., & Nanus, B. (1985). Leaders: The strategies for taking charge. New York: Harper & Row Boonstra, J. (2004). Dynamics of Organizational Change and Learning. Willey handbooks. England DeRose interview 2009. Youtube GRINT, K., 2001. The arts of leadership. Oxford: Oxford University Press Hargie, O., Dickson, D., and Tourish, D., 2004. Communication skills for effective management. London. Palgrave McMillan Huczynski, A., 2004. Influencing within organizations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge Joel Peterson (2015). In Business, Do You Aspire to Be Loved or Respected?. LinkedIn Judy Romano (2015). 30 Inspiring Leadership Quotes. LinkedIn Ken Gosnell (2015). 8 Statements Every CEO Should Make. LinkedIn Ken Gosnell (2015). How To Regain Your Leadership Confidence. LinkedIn Nathalie Salles (2015). 5 Key Shifts That Turn Engineers Into GREAT Leaders! MBA, PCC. LinkedIn Perloff, R. (2010). The Dynamics of Persuasion: Communication and Attitudes in the Twenty-First. 4th Edition. Taylor and Francis. Schein, Edgar (1992). Organizational culture and leadership. Jossey-Bass Smircich, L & Morgan G. (1982). Leadership: The Management of Meaning. The Journal of Applied Behavioural Science Icheku, V. (2011). Understanding Ethics and Ethical Decision Making. Xlibris Corporation. United States Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Organizations (7th Edition), London: Prentice Hall

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Appendix 1 – Global Overview about Leadership in DeRose Method

Document created by Pedro Nóbrega and revised by Eduardo Saldanha

Leadership is Lead. It is an action against the other. The DeRose Method aims in the

first instance to put the person as the leader of his own emotional heritage.

The leader is the one who contaminates others by example. Leadership is example.

There is no other way. Whatever the lead is the base is always the example.

Example instigates others to be. There isn´t such a thing as a great leader only with

words.

In the DeRose Method Leadership human condition, the human being, and the cell

take centre stage. Leaders determine actions — their own actions and other

people’s. The goal is to act and not to react.

It is important to notice that all people use different parts of the brain. For example a

person who is extremely organized and methodical focuses using the left cortex.

When we judge such people for excessive rigour we need to realize its nature. On

the other hand a person using the limbic cortex tends to be an artist. A dominant

human being uses all four parts of the brain (right and left cortex’s, right and left

limbic). This dominant person is equipped for any function.

According to the use of the brain the reactions and emotions of the human being are

different. As an example, let us imagine a new social situation (or job). There will

always be some person you don’t get along with. Sometimes this is due to the fact

that in that person the parts of his/her brain that prevail are not the ones that prevail

in your own brain.. This individual has his/her freedom to embody the personality he

was born with.

The individual's unconscious captures lots of information, namely subliminal

information, which means sometimes nothing externally noticeable, happens but all

people sense a strange atmosphere.

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If I need to interact more deeply with this individual, the worst thing I can do is to

exacerbate the differences, telling this person that I don´t like him/her, marginalizing

them. As leader and follower I need to think that it's not be a person I like, but that

surely has good qualities.

Here comes one of the leading secrets to deal with people who you do not feel

connected with, or traitors, enemies and people that can cause you harm, in any

way. In this scenario we can enforce FAR CORDIALITY without intimacy. No

intimacy means only being social without getting into the private sphere of the other

person.

As individuals we have the tendency to clearly separate the people we love/like from

those we don´t love/like.

One of the great lessons of leadership in the DeRose method is that we need each

other, but that the statuses of friend/foe are only a matter of intensity.

The Leadership DeRose method goes further, considering that we are all animals

and that the evolution of our species was quite difficult to accomplish. The human

animal isn´t able to fight as well as the other species. The human being as a species

has suffered a lot to impose itself as the dominant group.

We think humans are not really the dominant group, but human beings have a hard

time on managing positive emotions, mainly affection, love, and kindness. The

human being tends to perceive these as weaknesses. We understand power and

strength much better in a person who is unreachable. For this reason in the initial

steps the hierarchical relationships are very important. If on the one hand affection is

perceived as a weakness on the other hand the human being has tremendous

emotional needs, because life is hard.

The question of authority is critical (a person who loves you and is close to you will

find that you have little authority over him/her). This happens in every kind of

relationship — even at home.

Intimacy changes the balance of power.

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Leadership teaches us that behind the social structures and good manners we are all

animals. The animal has the ego and the ego always tries to impose itself.

The initial process in any relationship consists of keeping some distance. The

subconscious requires that there is an order. The subconscious tends to establish

the hierarchies in any given new context..

In the organic matter of man (body, mind, spirit) the consciousness has a very low

weight (example: heart rate, breathing, past memories, insights, etc. All that is

present in the subsconscious).

Behind the social masks there is the animal ego.

Often the teacher has to put the student in his/her place. That´s why you always

need an hierarchy, an evolutionary ladder. We always have people above and

people below and this is a structure that looks after each each of its constituents. The

problems arise when the person is not very receptive.

That's why one of the first lessons consists of blindfolding the student and assigning

it a mission like lifting an object. The aim is to regulate the ego, conveying a sublime

message that there is a hierarchy.

You have to ride the Ego and not let the ego ride you... We can´t be hostage of the

ego.

However the DeRose Method boosts the ego through practices, self-knowledge and

personal evolution.

On the one hand you want a free ego like a wild horse, but you also want to have

power and command over it — you want to ride it.

As previously mentioned, the statuses of friend or foe are a matter of intensity. If you

give too much attention to a friend you can spoil the context and be forced to face a

reversion in the balance of power. This also happens in professional relationships.

The secret is to keep the egos in a healthy state both in leaders and in followers. I

need to manage my heritage and my qualities in my relation with the others.

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I have to understand my animal essence and that animals compete with each other.

The DeRose Method puts the individual in correlation with the animals. In spite of the

differences in values, the basis is the same. The way to protect ourselves is by

positioning ourselves in a more conscious perspective and using a distant cordiality

or, in other cases, a more intimate relation.

The problem is when we have to deal with a very close relationship.

Teacher, instructor, student can´t be seem as the same because they are on

different levels. The moment this happens you can´t reprimand or correct without

being perceived in a negative way.

One mustn’t miss this alignment, and to lose it one just has to convey too much

affection. DeRose even says we mustn´t give too much attention to the practitioner.

Do not give anything. Sometimes the rougher you are, the better the student will turn

out to be.

The leadership of the DeRose Method is root based, it aims to the base of the

individual. It doesn´t care whether it is authoritarian or participatory, it does not

bother to fit in other theoretical models.

The Leadership in the DeRose Method is nonetheless hierarchical, as caste-applied

in India. We can even understand the human body as also a caste: the brain gets the

better, keeping the sugar we eat. On the other hand, fat goes into the belly and the

metals go to the feet. So the brain has the most refined functions, meaning it is the

upper caste. There is a caste division in our body.

Nevertheless the DeRose Method is a matriarchal system that leads to the proximity

of people (sometimes in a practice room if you can not tell who is the teacher, the

instructor or the students).

In the works of Machiavelli, the author analyses two leaders in a company (the

counterparts to the modern CEO). In moment one, leader A is extremely drastic and

hard, and leader B is condescending. In moment two leader A turns condescending

and leader B is hard. What happens is that leader B is fired as the leader A is loved

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forever. Leader A gave himself to respect ... Unconsciously this means he dares to

put you in his own place.

Leadership is about people not about procedures.

Initially give more distance and only later give more "love" and not vice versa. At first

display a distant cordiality.

In ancient Hindu systems the most unpleasant person was the oldest master (higher

scale).

They teach us that the ego is a quiet thing. But it isn’t. It's our raison d’être. To

defend the ego is to defend life. Protect the ego. If someone attacks your ego you

tend to protect it.

Even in a friendship if you go against your ego, the relationship can be jeopardised.

Our mind is linguistic... When we speak to ourselves the mind registers the failures

and tells us that we are wrong, sending a message of failure to the subconscious and

putting us down. After a while the subconscious starts boycotting the process.

The same thing can happen with a project that didn’t get finished, didn’t work. The

best way is to discipline the mind. Give consistently. We know that when all parts are

integrated (physical, emotional, mental and intuitional) the person is cohesive

(Example: when you are in a class and already late for an appointment, you end up

feeling divided in a so-called energy dismemberment). It often happens when I'm

here and there. There is much duplication in person. This weakens the individual.

One of the important things to do to strengthen the power of the mind is to follow the

sequence “I think / I want, I´m doing, I'm there”. We should use this every day in

simple situations in a process of gaining strength (e.g. I want to take an MBA, I'll take

an MBA, I am taking an MBA).

What happens in my subconscious... is that I am telling my brain that I am a winner.

If there is some unfinished business attend to it, and finish it. This brings clarity to

everything.

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To the brain it is all the same, whether you want to make a million, get an MBA,

some coffee, a job, etc. The brain gets used to the process, generates a conditioning

and tells you can do it.

This is a total overhaul in thinking. Most people say I really want this, but that, in

itself, is not an effective and concrete action. It does not generate a karma action. I

want, I go, I am.

Example: bankruptcy. The brain registers the failure and the person begins to lose

self-esteem. He/she begins to lose the power of the word. They speak but the brain

does not believe the words and fears. Word is power, to word is to want.

The individual must assume his/her responsibilities. You have to be the pilot of your

life. If you make a bad decision and things go wrong, you are responsible. Take

control of your ship.

The individual is never at 100% efficiency. Sometimes you are at 70%, or 60% or

even 20%, but you should always do the best you really can. But it is at this point that

you realizes the stuff human beings are made of.

Generally we cannot be hostage of success nor in-success.

Note that the relationship of humans with nature is of the utmost importance. We

should do what makes us feel good. It sometimes happens that the individual feels

perfectly well but is still eager for something else.

In society in general and in terms of leadership, people just lead the way they are,

according to their own shape and style. There are several leadership courses,

various teachings, but the truth is people tend to end up not putting to practice what

they have learned.

We need to work on the foundations of the individual in order to condition and

change his/her leadership skills and style.