How to Become a Better Leader, Toegel, G. & Barsoux, J.L. Mit Sloan Management Review,

Class: 7014

• How to Become a Better Leader, Toegel, G. & Barsoux, J.L. MIT Sloan Management Review, Spring, 2012, pp.  50-60.

From the article, we can learn “Big Five” are key personal traits and dimensions of the successful leadership. “Big Five” is an effective tool for leaders to refer to. Clearly, one thing which is more important for leaders is “Self-Aware”. The final target of these management tools is not to change a personality; the real target is to be yourself, with more skills.

The leader is not the superhero, cannot do everything. The leader is also a human being, so he/she has strength or weakness of the personality. The different business situation and demand call on different leadership trait. Therefore, the organization should set up a long-term program to help executives becoming “Self-Aware” and invest effort into developing their coaching skills. The benefits of the program are the executives would have opportunities to gain insight into their personalities and get feedback from multiple sources. Also, some of them may accept and overcome his or her blind spot. Because self-awareness allows executives to share their particular foibles and shortcomings, and alerts them to activities and situations they are likely to find difficult. This makes it easier for people to read and help them keep their extreme behaviors in check. “Steve Jobs and Tim Cook” example gives us a good demonstrate.

• How Gen Y & Boomers Will Reshape Your Agenda., Hewlett, S.A., Sherbin, L., & Sumberg, K. Harvard Business Review, Jul/Aug. 2009, pp. 71-76.

With the more and more Gen Y going into the labor market, the employer how to change themselves to get the trend of the dramatically shifted the composition of the workforce becomes a hot topic. The whole article listed the several common themes of Boomer and Gen Y from the survey data.

I am the Gen Y. I totally agree with The Best Way to Pay. High-quality colleagues and being able to work flexibly are important. So, the new workplace should understand of the two generation deeper. If the organization wants to enjoy a major talent advantage, the values which can shared by Boomer and Gen Y should be set up.