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A childs question of Leadership

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 5:14 pm
by ksl
My daughter came home from school and asked me if I knew what leadership is in one word. I could only find one word to fit Singapore and the UK with one word and that would be dictatorship for an autocratic system. A little harsh I know but I'm no good at crosswords either :oops:

The word given by the school is Influence....which I really find a little limp, so I decided to post the question to see what people think.

What is leadership in Singapore in one word?

After looking all over it looks like Influence is the closest word to find from an autocratic point of view, though infuse or better still inspire suits me better, so do I challenge the schools one word from my own political perspective!

Conditioning comes to mind at the moment so inspire/infuse would be a better word until she could make her own mind up.

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 5:40 pm
by macaroonie
Direction
Vision
Hope
Future

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 5:47 pm
by ksl
macaroonie wrote:Direction
Vision
Hope
Future
Must be one word to describe leadership!

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 5:48 pm
by macaroonie
Hmm
vision

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 5:51 pm
by ksl
macaroonie wrote:Hmm
vision
Yes much better than the schools influence! I see the word influence backfiring on the system eventually and actually feel that word has already caused a great deal of damage in Singapore's population, if that is what is being taught. People need to inspire to gain respect, not influence.

Actually after further discussion with my daughter, she says it is not the teachers at school that are teaching Leadership, it is an outside source which i have just deleted.

This must be a great concern to many parents, if this is happening in all Singaporean schools on leadership, because influence would be a typical control factor, with autocracy, which is counter productive to business efficiency, and productivity as an employer in a developed world.

Good leadership inspires,

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 7:11 pm
by intellectualsmuse
But most leadership in today's day and age is based on your circle of "influence". Its all commercial! Not that they should be making cynics out of school kids, but well...

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 8:22 pm
by ksl
intellectualsmuse wrote:But most leadership in today's day and age is based on your circle of "influence". Its all commercial! Not that they should be making cynics out of school kids, but well...
deleted because I don't wish to express my opinion. Just confuses SMS :)

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 8:35 pm
by nakatago
ksl wrote:
macaroonie wrote:Hmm
vision
Yes much better than the schools influence! I see the word influence backfiring on the system eventually and actually feel that word has already caused a great deal of damage in Singapore's population, if that is what is being taught. People need to inspire to gain respect, not influence.s,
Word.

I wanted to say "hubris" just to be cynical and sarcastic but I guess I'll be with the choir on that one.

Hn. Backreading. You sure did use inspiration a lot.

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 8:52 pm
by SunWuKong
It amuses me that someone out there believes that there is a right answer.

By the way, people do not change. Once a slave always a slave.

People are who they are. Some aspects may come to the fore under differing stimuli, but real change can be bet against one million to one.

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 9:07 pm
by ksl
SunWuKong wrote:It amuses me that someone out there believes that there is a right answer.

By the way, people do not change. Once a slave always a slave.

People are who they are. Some aspects may come to the fore under differing stimuli, but real change can be bet against one million to one.
There is no right answer at all, there are only causes and affects

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 9:14 pm
by sundaymorningstaple
[quote="ksl"There is no right answer at all, there are only causes and affects[/quote]

For example. Baron's causes funny long and winding answers sometimes and the effect is bemusement from me! :P

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 9:15 pm
by ksl
nakatago wrote:
ksl wrote:
macaroonie wrote:Hmm
vision
Yes much better than the schools influence! I see the word influence backfiring on the system eventually and actually feel that word has already caused a great deal of damage in Singapore's population, if that is what is being taught. People need to inspire to gain respect, not influence.s,
Word.

I wanted to say "hubris" just to be cynical and sarcastic but I guess I'll be with the choir on that one.

Hn. Backreading. You sure did use inspiration a lot.
Well I did give my own opinion rather than an objective one, because this is all about my daughter learning and not myself. And why it's interesting to see the forums results on a one word for "leadership"

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 9:25 pm
by Asdracles
One word for leadership..... What about "leadership" itself??

Now seriously, there are too many different aspects of leadership, so we can find a good synonym to each one

I kinda agree with "influence". A leader makes influence in his team, sometimes good, sometimes bad. But I prefer the word "guidance" with a similar idea, but a softer meaning.

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:54 pm
by nakatago
Asdracles wrote:I kinda agree with "influence". A leader makes influence in his team, sometimes good, sometimes bad. But I prefer the word "guidance" with a similar idea, but a softer meaning.
Thing is, this is Singapore, er, I mean, Asia. When they say "influence," they really mean, the leader says what he believes and everyone below shuts up and just goes with it.

Kowtowing now optional.
ksl wrote:Well I did give my own opinion rather than an objective one, because this is all about my daughter learning and not myself. And why it's interesting to see the forums results on a one word for "leadership"
I've had actual experience teaching. You can only teach what you know. :cool:

Posted: Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:35 pm
by ksl
nakatago wrote:
Asdracles wrote:I kinda agree with "influence". A leader makes influence in his team, sometimes good, sometimes bad. But I prefer the word "guidance" with a similar idea, but a softer meaning.
Thing is, this is Singapore, er, I mean, Asia. When they say "influence," they really mean, the leader says what he believes and everyone below shuts up and just goes with it.

Kowtowing now optional.
ksl wrote:Well I did give my own opinion rather than an objective one, because this is all about my daughter learning and not myself. And why it's interesting to see the forums results on a one word for "leadership"
I've had actual experience teaching. You can only teach what you know. :cool:
I couldn't agree more, that's why i am posting this link http://www.leadersdirect.com/leadership.html , though i was well informed of the difference, more than 25 years ago, the British military have seen a significant change in autocratic organization too. Victorian methods are long gone in many commercial areas in Europe, though UK is pretty conservative with change, political dominance of the working class takes priority, along with keeping wages at a minimum to recruit investment.

Though it is Singapore, the government preaches vision, innovation and the ability to increase productivity, which it has had problems doing in the last decade.

For me, the word influence is very restricted and outdated, so I cannot agree that influence is a close definition of leadership, it has very little to do with team work and more to do with control. Inspiration is based on motivational technique, practical experience, what you know, divine influence as in especially good, rather than feared.

Changing a workforces mentality to participate and value the company, is not an easy task to fulfil, when you have peer pressure to deal with. So do the conditioned remain conditioned to continue in a never ending circle of conservatism, or do the ones travelling abroad adopt new organisation business models to improve productivity. I am unhappy with the term influence in the true sense of the word for leadership, because it isn't team spirited and was never meant to be.

Though as we see asdracles incorporates the definition, but prefers the word guidance, with a similar idea but a softer meaning, a new way of thinking. Which is really changing the definition of the word influence is he not? That is why i preferred inspiration it is more suited for leadership.

Case story: The company is losing so much money through theft of products, there is no trust between the management and the workers, the workers are in a cliche grp with peer pressure from a ring leader, that uses his powers to manipulate the work force and sabotage the company.
what to do. Old way sack them, new way recondition the work force to take pride in their work....You are right this is Singapore a difficult task, but not an impossible task.