Week One: Reflection on what we learned so far

First week was passed like an arrow. There are three things I learned in this weekーhand shakes, power pose and Social Intelligence in leadership. 



First, we learned how to shake hands. Ken told that shaking hands is really important to give a good impression to others. The key point of good hand shaking isー"Brief", "Warm" and "Firm". We practiced with class mates and after shaking hands many times, I noticed that I felt no walls to my RW friends. When we meet someone, first thing we will do is shaking hands. It means shaking hands is the first way to show what's kind of person who I am. I hadn't realized the importance of hand shaking before I learned in this class, so I want to put in practice soon.

Next, posture affects our body and mind. We read the article: "How 'Power Poses' Can Help Your Care" written by Sue Shellenmarger. According to this, powerful pose changes a person's hormones and behavior. We learned expansive power pose can increase testosterone, which give us confidence and aggressive behavior. Also, power posing improves our performance. I've never known about powerful poses gives good influence biologically. I am thinking of majoring psychology, and psychology studies abut how behavior affects our brain(mind). So I came to be interested in how power poses effect on our brain from the psychological perspectives. 

Last, we learned about social intelligence in leadership. We read the article: "Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership" written by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis. It explains about social intelligence and it's related to brain. For instance, we have mirror neurons which mimic, or mirror what another being does, and using it, leaders can keep positive mood in their teams and get the best of them. Becoming a socially intelligence leader, I learned showing empathy and be attuned to other moods is important. Through this class, I decided to be sensitive other's motivation, because I thought I'm lack of this skill. Being like this is really important to be a great leader, I think. When I was an leader of student organization, I didn't consider other's motivation and gave heavy task to one of my past member even though he didn't have a high motivation toward job. In the end, he decided to quit organization. Even though motivate members and make them to do the job is essential skill as a leader, I think being sensitive members' motivation is also important. Without this skill, followers cannot come with leaders and they feel heavy stress. I want to keep in mind this.

Shaking hand, power poses and social intelligence, these are essential points we should know about learning leadership. I noticed everyone should be able to get these skills after learning and practicing. These things don't require special gifts. It means everyone have a chance to be a good leader. I want to put in practice soon:) Also, I think these three points are related to "give trust to others". If you want to be a leader, first you have to be trusted, of course. I noticed essential thing to be a good leader is not only skills for jobs, but also good character to be trusted from others.