Institution
Being the Managing Director (MD) for Oracle South Korea
for a day would be an opportunity to practice my philosophy of leadership even
with the knowledge of how short that will be. I have always seen leadership as
a kind of sense making. This approach fundamentally differs from the
conventional approach that assumes that those holding formal leadership titles
have the solutions to every problem of the organization. Rather, leadership as
sense-making takes the position that leadership is all about how every person
in the organization makes sense of their surrounding.
Proceeding from this approach, the whole day as the MD
will be dedicated to getting to know as much about the South Korean operation
as would be possible. Of course, I will not spend my day going through
meaningless reports in some office. What I mean by getting to know the
operation is through real people at Oracle South Korea. Thus, I would convene
meetings with the senior executives so that all of us can get to have a common
understanding of what needs to be done. Having everybody come to a common
understanding is an effective way of ensuring that decisions will receive
support even from quarters whose positions may seem threatened by the decision.
It is not, however, lost on me that the cultural
landscape in which businesses operate in Korea is not the same as what obtains
in the U.S. Thus, my interactions with the few people I will have managed to
meet by the end of the day will be sensitive to these differences. This is
important if one is to have any meaningful interaction with people given that
cultural background heavily influences the meanings attached to words and
actions.
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