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Contents

Title: Peter Senge’s five Disciplines to me. 2

My ideal Leadership Model 4

Five things I learned about myself during this workshop. 5

References. 6

Title: Peter Senge’s five Disciplines to me

Senge (1990) says that organizations can learn because, ‘deep down, all of us are learners. Senge explains how people can destroy illusions in order to build ‘learning organizations’. One of the illusions that are described in his book ‘The Fifth Discipline’ is the idea that the world is made out of separate forces that are unrelated. Learning organizations are those whereby people are continually expanding their ability and capacity to create desirable results. They are also organizations where it is possible to build new patterns of thinking. In such settings, people are able to pursue collective aspirations since they obtain the ability to learn together.

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            All the elements that are contained in Senge’s five disciplines model are very meaningful to me. I like the element of ‘Systems thinking’ because it contains elements of both theoretical and practical frameworks. It is critical to my understanding of all the other components that Senge talks about.

            The concept of systems thinking has enabled me to understand organizations in a very clear and precise manner. Through Senge’s explanation, I am able to appreciate organizations as complex systems that comprise of numerous interrelated components. Additionally, I understand the interactions that take place between these components.

As an aspiring manager, Senge’s approach to ‘systems thinking’ stimulates me to think critically about ways of dealing with long-term of dynamics found in complex organizational systems. Additionally, I also feel informed and confident about dealing with the short-term problems that I keep encountering in each part of the system.

The component of personal mastery is also extremely meaningful to me as I pursue personal excellence in my career and personal life. Senge’s advice to individuals to approach life the way an artist approaches works of art is highly enlightening to me. My understanding of this advice is that there are no hard-and-fast rules on how one should tackle life’s challenges.

           Moreover, personal mastery, for me, is about the ability to clarify and sharply focus my personal vision, develop patience and cultivate diligence in an open and honest manner. I consider this to be the best way of seeing reality as it exists while at the same time setting and defining my own boundaries of ambition and success. Since learning about personal mastery, I always try to approach life from a creative perspective rather and not a reactive one as I used to before. This seems to be a crucial step to take towards getting a clear vision of the way things in my life should be. I also consider this to be a significant step towards reinforcing my strengths and fighting my weaknesses.

Mental models, for me, consist of deeply ingrained mental images or assumptions influencing my understanding of the world around me and the manner in which I take actions. Mental models inspire me to build visions and to do what is necessary to actualize these visions as part of learning and excelling.

I also consider it building a shared vision to be a critical aspect of being a good team player. I have learned many things about the importance of playing in a team by carrying out an objective analysis of the information given by Senge with regard to teamwork and organizational learning. I have noted that my personal vision is a genuine one since I have started to notice signs of professional growth and success. Through the team learning element, I am able to maintain consciousness of the fact that dialogue is an important aspect of any organizational or teamwork undertaking.

My ideal Leadership Model

           Gardner (1989) studied several North American leaders and organizations and found that some qualities appeared to mean that a leader in one situation could lead people in another. Some of the traits Gardner identified include task competence, physical vitality and stamina, understanding of all followers and their needs, eagerness to accept responsibility, and skill in dealing with people.

           Over the last century, four main leadership theories or generations have emerged, namely trait, behavioral, contingency and transformational theories(Nanus, 1992). According to Nanus, this fourfold division of management leadership may be defined under different titles or models. For instance, people talk about charismatic instead of transformational leadership. However, the four formations highlighted by Nanus share some qualities. This is why they are often considered variations of the classical leadership model.

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           Out of all the components that make up the classical leadership model, charismatic leadership is the one I like most. Charismatic leaders are needed in today’s organizational setting that is changing all the time as a result of technological changes. Charismatic leaders are able to act decisively, maintain self-confidence, act with courage, and maintain assertiveness and adaptability all the time.

           Additionally, the charismatic leadership model matches my personality, temperament, and perspectives in life in many ways. If assigned a role as a supervisor, I always find it imperative to portray the qualities of a charismatic leader without appearing to dictate my will on those that I am leading. I also like being task-competent, meaning I always feel the compulsion to learn more and more every day.

Five things I learned about myself during this workshop

           The first thing that I learned is that the best organization to work for is one where limitless opportunities for learning exist. I learned that in order for an employee to be efficient in today’s organizational setting, he has to be exposed to opportunities for learning about things that interest him.

According to Morey, Maybury & Thuraisingham (2002), knowledge management can easily succeed where all other efforts seem to have failed. In order for this to happen, charismatic leadership is needed. All leaders of learning organizations need to have the stamina, task competence and assertiveness in order to motivate other people to become excellent organizational learners all their professional lives.

The second lesson was on the qualities required of a human service professional. These qualities include proper leadership skills and the ability to control and manage people’s feelings. Additionally, many hands-on skills and competences are needed as well. These include planning, designing and supervising of programs. Additionally, the ability to manage finances is a foundational skill that makes the monitoring and evaluation work easy.

           Hasenfeld (1992) points out that although human service professionals derive both intrinsic and extrinsic benefits, sometimes their jobs can be a source of great frustration. The joys of working in a human service organization arising out of the ability to change people’s lives. On the other hand, the frustrations arise from the complexity of these organizations. The existing rules and regulations may be too restrictive. The resources needed to perform the job well may not be available. Learning to tackle these challenges is part of what one has to do to achieve individual excellence in a human service profession.

           This workshop also taught me a third lesson: the need to develop human resources through teamwork efforts. As a future manager, I understand what awaits me if I am to develop an efficient workforce with ease. Teamwork is a key element in any human resource development undertaking, including recruitment, training, appraisal, and welfare. In a learning organization, the importance of teams is always underscored whenever learning strategies are being monitored and reviewed.

           Fourthly, the workshop enlightened me on the need to change perceptions as one of the ways of preparing for individual excellence psychologically. I was particularly keen on the need to shift mental models and to achieve personal mastery. This enabled me to rethink my approach to life and the areas that I need to improve in order to win over lifelong challenges.

Lastly, the workshop was enlightening because of putting crucial leadership theories and models into perspective. The models were explained in a clear and succinct manner that was devoid of any complications. I was able to make personal deductions through reference to my personal circumstances. I am confident that in a learning organization, it is surprisingly easy to understand both the theoretical and practical aspects of all the leadership models that I learned.

In conclusion, I have learned about the need to work hard in order to achieve personal excellence, particularly in a human service organization. I now clearly understand all the issues that managers in an organizational setting face both at a personal and professional level and how they deal with them.

References

Gardner, J. (1989) On Leadership, New York: Free Press.

Hasenfeld, Y. (Ed.) (1992) Human services as complex organizations, London: Sage Publications

Morey, D., Maybury, M. & Thuraisingham, B. (2002) Knowledge management: classic and contemporary works, MIT Press: Massachusetts.

Nanus, B. (1992) Visionary Leadership. Creating a compelling sense of direction for your organization, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Senge, P. M. (1990) The Fifth Discipline. The art and practice of the learning organization, London: Random House.