We are all born with a sense of purpose, a God-given drive for something to strive for, we have goals, passions, and dreams to do things greater than ourselves. So who do we look to and what do we reach for when we want to tap into these so-called dreams and purpose? We look for motivation. We look for the motivation. in people, in quotes, in books and sometimes the people around us. It’s the drive, it’s the fuel we need to allow us to step out of our shell and attempt to go after our goals. These same principals are the same when leaders are trying to motivate others and followers are trying to get motivated.

          If leaders are unable to motivate others, they will have such a challenge to get them to push past other barriers. Bandura’s 4 step social learning process stresses the importance of motivation for leaders and its effect on followers. The commentary makes statements about motivation “You could take an entire course on motivation, but for our purposes, motivation is about the desire to reproduce the behavior. So for instance, if someone doesn’t want to learn a new computer system that is being installed in an organization, attention, retention, and reproduction will all suffer. That said, if you as a global leader can motivate people, the other three steps become a lot easier.” (Social Learning, n.d.). Motivation is understanding how to create a desire in your followers to want to adapt and advance in new ways of doing things or even thinking. Creating a reason for them to want to change old outdated habits into new ones creates a challenge for many leaders. But leaders need to know what makes their followers tick.

        Another reason to use motivation is for the sake of the environment. In the commentary cultivating a successful environment is heavily important. “One is the environment. Will this behavior actually increase my ability to do what I need to do? For instance, if a person can be shown that a computer system will make a job easier, that person will be more likely to try and learn the behaviors to use it.” (Social Learning, n.d.). Showing or displaying the benefits with the follower can get them to be motivated when they know that it can better the work performance and make things much more efficient and effective. With the proper guidance and support from a leader, followers in return feel safe and secure with the leader and have a desire to want to pursue new systems and ways of conforming to new standards.

      Followers understand and have a sense of the leader that is teaching them a new way of doing things. If the leader isn’t open, likable, trustworthy and can’t get his followers motivated he or she might be running through a roadblock. Followers want to feel like the leader is bringing things to the table and has there best interest at heart, leaders being transparent and flexible makes the follower more willing to adapt to new standards.If the leader is dry in his intentions and doesn’t deliver in an unmotivating manner it could hurt the retention process of his followers. I had first-hand experience with this on a small scale while trying to teach my dad or have him move into a newer way of doing business. My father and I work together in the real estate business so we bring different talents, skills, thoughts, and experience to the table. My father is used to using his phone to contacting clients when needed and doesn’t have a proper CRM in place that he can refer to every day. So I suggested that we get a clean, easy to use and simple platform where we can plug in all of our clients in this database and keep things organized. At first, my father was initially opposed to it but when I explained things to him and showed him first hand how things worked he immediately got interested. I took the time to show him how to do things and how to navigate through the new CRM. Now, he loves it and wonders how we went so long without it. If I didn’t introduce a new system to him, he would have been using the same outdated system. Showing support and holding a followers hand can go a long way. Giving them a reason, a motivation can help them reach their potentials and move up the ladder of success quicker!

 

Social Learning. (n. d.). Leadership in a Global Context–OLEAD 410. Online course lesson, Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved February 5, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1916378/modules/items/23640537

Moran, Robert, Abramson, Neil, & Moran, Sarah. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Oxford: Routledge.

 

       First, let us understand what communication is. Communication is defined in the commentary as “at its most basic level, communication is about the exchange of information between individuals” (Defining Communication, n.d.). There isn’t a second that goes by that we don’t communicate with one another.  We communicate through email, face to face, text, Skype and even on the go with Facetime. We communicate on a variety of different levels, some verbal and some nonverbal. There is a constant wave of communication that is happening around the world.

      The question we must ask ourselves how important is communication in the world we live in? Regardless of where you work, where you spend time with friends and family, we must be aware of how we communicate. How we communicate is vital to our overall success as individuals living in this modern day society. Because we are a melting pot of people and we encounter an array of diverse people throughout our lifetime we must educate ourselves of how to communicate on a variety of levels. It’s not easy to communicate on every level but there is a way we can all steer away from, and that’s egocentrism. Egocentrism is defined in the commentary as “is an inability to take on other people’s perspectives” (Error in Communication, n.d.).

      Senders can help receivers understand things clearly by communicating in a fashion that puts the sender in the receiver’s perspective. How much clearer or how quick can we resolve issues and communicate a message when we have a deep foundational understanding of what the other person is saying. What are the sender and receiver really trying to say? Many of us communicate in an egocentric perspective either intentionally or unintentionally, so if we can train ourselves to have a level of awareness we are able to become better communicators. This is why we face so many misunderstandings and miscommunication across the board, whether we are at work, with our families, with our friends etc. Listening and having a sense of awareness are great skills to have because it is the foundation of making communication easier and helps us get the message across regardless of whatever we are facing.  Moran, Abramson, Moran describes listening as “Listening is at the heart of all successful communication. We listen to both the words and the nonverbal signaling. We learn to listen and talk before we read and write.” (Moran, Abramson, Moran, Pg. 39). This gives us a deep understanding of how critical it is for senders and receivers to listen and have a sense of awareness when communicating with one another. Great leaders learn the skill of listening and understanding others and making sure that they are communicating with effectiveness and efficiency.

       As a Realtor, your whole career is based on how successful you can communicate, listen and understand other agents and most importantly your clients. Regardless of how I am feeling, and I know how emotions can affect our communication with others, I try my best to listen and be aware of what the receiver is saying. I try my very best to communicate and send a positive message to the receiver that helps the situation at hand and gets my point across in an unbiased fashion, especially when I am encountering different ethnicities and cultures.

      We all come from different walks of life and being able to communicate in an unbiased and egocentric fashion is the way to go. Understanding each other creates a sense of unison with each another and allows us to create, innovate and work with one another brilliantly. We were meant to thrive and succeed with each other and do great things. Sadly, the way of communication has been much more challenging than we would have hoped for because not everyone is a great communicator. The good news is, we are in control of ourselves and can better ourselves as working professionals and individuals of society to contribute effectively in all our endeavors.

 

References

Moran, Robert, Abramson, Neil, & Moran, Sarah. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Oxford: Routledge.

Defining Communication. (n. d.). Leadership in a Global Context–OLEAD 410. Online course lesson, Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved February 1, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1916378/modules/items/23640529

Errors in Communication. (n.d.). Leadership in a Global Context — OLEAD 410. Online course lesson, Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved February 1, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1916378/modules/items/23640530

 

 

 

        What is Diversity? Diversity according to the commentary is “differences between individuals within groups” (Defining Diversity, n.d.). We all come from somewhere, regardless of what we have been told or thought to believe. We all have something to offer and when we take the time to embrace one another and create a community of inclusion, magic happens. Acceptance, and willingness to embrace one another lead us to succeed individually and on a variety of levels.

        Diversity alongside Inclusion is like peanut butter and jelly. Diversity with the implementation of inclusion causes people to come together for a common purpose and create something great. That is the sole reason why Diversity and Inclusion have such a vital importance in the life we live. Inclusion is defined as “process of including the various diverse perspectives and characteristics” (Inclusion, n.d.). Inclusion creates interaction, healthy interaction that can result in negative effects of surface-level diversity. Moran, Moran, and Abramson state that”as you get to know your teammates, you relate to them more as they are, and less as they might appear to be as stereotypes” (Moran, Moran and Abramson, 2014).

        The office in which I work in is a melting pot of ethnic backgrounds. Some are from Pakistan, Palestine, Mexico, India, U.K., Italy and so on. Many of them have different ways of thinking, styles of doing business and experience levels. The broker/owner of the office does a fantastic job of creating a monthly meeting (inclusive approach) with all of the agents to come together and discuss how we can better serve our clients, make more money and what working in the current market and what isn’t. This has created a positive deep-level diversity because we would grow fond of one another, letting our guards down and building long-lasting relationships. This caused our office to generate record-breaking numbers in the Bay Area.

       I have personally grown from my environment and culture at the office. What has made it easier is that I am very open with others and willing to be very helpful for the sake of collective success. The less we are ethnocentric the better off we will be. It takes a sense of humility to learn and want to work with others for a common goal. I truly believe that there are many organizations that lack this principal and that can be the very reason that they aren’t meeting there fullest potentials. When we embrace healthy Diversity and create inclusion our overall performance collectively increases, we reach goals faster, we grow as individuals and we reach unprecedented success. That is the reason Diversity is so vital in the world we live in.

References:

Moran, Robert, Abramson, Neil, & Moran, Sarah. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Oxford: Routledge.

Defining Diversity. (n. d.). Leadership in a Global Context–OLEAD 410. Online course lesson, Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved January 23, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1916378/modules/items/23640518

Inclusion. (n.d.). Leadership in a Global Context — OLEAD 410. Online course lesson, Penn State World Campus, The Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved January 23, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1916378/modules/items/23640522

 

        Ethnocentrism is defined as an “exaggerated tendency to think the characteristics of one’s own group or race is superior to those of other groups or races” (Drever, 1952, p. 86). Ethnocentrism is the very thing that can rob humanity from connecting with one another. It can take us away from advancing and collaborating with each other. We need to recognize all cultures and know that we all have something to offer. One group is never more superior than the other. The sad thing about this is that we don’t all live with this way of thinking.

       Ethnocentrism comes in many different shapes and sizes and can be identified as stereotyping and seeing things in a biased fashion. In the lesson 2 module, it clearly states that “People who can’t see the world from other perspectives will often label groups with sweeping generalizations.This is known as the out-group effect (Turner & Haslam, 2001)”. We often have this issue amongst co-workers in corporate environments. Instead of workers cultivating a culture within the corporate setting, at times, we set ourselves up for failure when we have an Ethnocentric way of thinking.

        As a real estate agent, we work in a very aggressive and competitive environment. As you know, It is very easy to have an ethnocentric attitude in the office especially if you are a high producer. Your perception and ideology of others become shallow and think others are not on your level. That ethnocentric way of thinking can cripple an office from growing as a company because an office is only as good as its agents. Over time this can cause a real estate team to fall apart if it stays in this state.

       Agents should be helping agents, no matter the level of volume they do on a yearly and monthly basis. A top producer or every agent for that matter would be working collectively, so that all agents survive and bring the best level of service for clients, reaching unprecedented goals and work in harmony. We must untangle and be aware of our unconscious minds and make sure we are not hindering others and the overall success of the people we are around every day. In the lesson commentary, it states “But it is important that ethnocentrism expresses itself through unconscious values” (Ethnocentrism, n.d.). Ethnocentrism can kill innovation, success and stop many companies from growing right in its tracks. To me, ethnocentrism is a lack of humility and willingness to collectively care about the overall success of something. The more we are conscious of it, the better off we will be.

References:

Drever, H. E. (1952). A dictionary of psychology. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.

Turner, J. C. & Haslam, S. A. (2001). Social identity, organizations and leadership. In M.E. Turner (Ed.), Groups at work: Advances in theory and research ( pp . 25–65). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Ethnocentrism. (n.d.) Leadership in a Global Context — OLEAD 410. Online course lesson, Penn State World Campus, Pennsylvania State University. Retrieved January 16, 2018, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1916378/modules/items/23640511

Hey Guys,

My name is Rami Bahu and I am from San Francisco, California. I am currently a Realtor here in the bay area helping investors find commercial properties. I still do residential real estate but I am not as focused on it as I use to be. My long to term goal is to be an investor in many different sectors and help build and start companies as well. I don’t have a ton of leadership experience, but I plan on using the knowledge I gain in this class and other material to become a great leader. My favorite quote of all time is a quote by Mark Twain, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” The reason this is my favorite quote of all time is because it sends a vital message to the heart of every person that there is a reason for there existence. Leading others with a WHY and having them find there own WHY is the greatest thing you can do for others. I am a big believer in that! I love to play sports and spend time with family as much as I can or whenever I get a chance. I am looking forward to this class and getting to know some of you!