Leading People and Groups

There are over 35,000 academic definitions of leadership, so basically there's no simple one. I find it hilarious that leadership has been analyzed from so many angles and probed and prodded from various perspectives, sometimes even to nearly diametrically opposed conclusions.  It might be that leadership is so situation specific and emotional that differences can only lead to these infinite subtleties.  However, that's why we study it - and I think one of the best things about INSEAD is experiencing/practicing these challenges across cultures, nationalities, etc.  Since INSEAD was founded with the concept of being a European "Harvard" its not surprising that teamwork and leadership have become part of the reputation.  But, how are our leadership skills developed here specifically?  It's a very interesting method...

I came to INSEAD, like many others, a very social person, but in addition to the partying/social pressure cooker that I'm enjoying - (but am still exhausted by) - INSEAD also divides students into 4 sections of 77 students within which they dictate smaller groups of 5 or 6 per team. These teams become your late night/Friday afternoon study-buddies, like it or not - and you just have to pray they give you cool peeps.  But INSEAD does a careful job about this whole concept...  Prior to school starting each group's members are selected and seem to cover the widest diversity of nationalities, work experiences, demographics, and personalities.  These totally manufactured circumstances force us to work through personality challenges, manage cultural communication issues, drive consensus between different work experiences, etc in order to produce quality MBA work.  

So, that's the game and my group has some interesting players.  There are 6 members of my group, including:

• A sharp and spunky Chinese girl, who could easily have pursued a berth on the gymnastics team with her short height, but intense focus.  Like many INSEAD students, I feel she's highly self-aware, which compliments her HR background and makes her insights about personalities very helpful and keen
• A highly motivated and organized Peruvian economist-turned-investment-banker, ironically also a good latin DJ, who's super reliable and hard working
• A Chilean product/brand manager who balances a focus and strong opinions with strong values for family and fun.  He seems to have the deepest work-leadership experience because he explains his decisions carefully and thoughtfully.  As a side note, I've been amazed at his patience and self-control, but I am a little nervous that he bottles his thoughts too much to reach consensus
• An Indian software engineer who seems to me to be the heart and soul of our team.  He cares passionately about his home country and family, but is very technically gifted and emotionally observant, sensitive, and supportive
• A French manufacturing and production genius, who pays incredible attention to detail, equations, calculations, and hard facts.  His focus on minutia that other group members sometimes find insane is simultaneously a saving grace for us

Since I've had experiences on both massively disfunctional teams and also high performing ones, this group is both exhilarating and scary.  I think it's equally probable that we will work brilliantly or fail miserably because its not a lack of self-awareness, coherent thought, honesty, or intelligence that we could lack.  We might lack, and therefore appreciate, an ability to bridge these differences, handle arguments, and make decisions that help us reach great results.  The key will be communicating and working through these situations, which is where I think I can help.  Viva leadership @ INSEAD!

More about traveling and activities on the weekends next... 

School - The First Week

It one week into roughly 10 months of school and I'm already beginning to understand why people say INSEAD is soooo intense.  Looking back on this week, I can see my mistake - work doesn't prepare you for 'school' work - ha.  However, if I had been doing school work these last 4+ years - I wouldn't have context or concept of real business experience.  Now at end of my first full week of classes and full-on INSEAD activities I'm EXHAUSTED!  But since I think this might be a good way to share my misery, I'm going to quickly recount the situation and agenda.  

Our year is divided into 5 periods of which P1 and P2 are supposed to be the most intense and difficult in terms of work-load, social adjustment, and other MBA stuff.  The cool thing is that after a long week of school work, I got some good sleep on Thursday night and we had a Career Services Day on Friday.  With such a short MBA program, INSEAD has to get us started early on the job search so, maybe, we can finish on time.  They did say that nearly 3/4s of graduates had at least one job offer at graduation last year and the number went way up from there over time.  Besides the stats about graduates, etc, they walked us through some personal analysis - tests, etc.  Although, I feel pretty good about the thought I've done to date re: this, I don't think you can ever get enough, and it's helping me move on to the tactical stuff about landing my dream job. 

Yes, its all about landing a dream job.  I have to highlight that when I think of the school schedule and how painful it is to do statistics homework and finance review again.  Wow, but here's the list of my classes:

1. Prices and Markets (micro-econ)
2. Uncertainty, Data, and Judgement (UDJ, stat)
3. Leading People and Groups (LPG, org behavior)
4. Financial Accounting (accounting)
5. Financial Markets and Valuation (FMV) 

Honestly, looking at it I don't feel too bad since I studied much of the material in undergraduate, but there is definitely a different slant here.  There's a much more advanced focus on the applicability and usefulness of the info.  Using statistics to make informed general management decisions that relate to financial valuation and pricing is some how more interesting now that I've seen some of the actual decisions managers face. 

At any rate, I've survived the first week and I know how crazy it can get - so, now I'm on top of it... right?