LE Part 6: Core Team Values

 The context of the sixth chapter of Leading at the Edge, "Core Team Values" sounded very connected to other chapters, especially chapter 5, as written in the beginning of "Core Team Values." I was very impressed by many of Shackleton's actions towards his crews and saw the reasons why his crews put so much faith on him. I believe that his self-sacrifice required so much stamina and optimistic perspectives towards the tough situations, the qualities of which are mentioned in previous chapters. If I were his crew, I would feel like I would like to do anything for him even though his request was quite tough. The most interesting quote from this chapter is "what is important to realize that Shackleton's behavior as a leader had ripple effects beyond his individual concerns," which made me realize how much importance a leader's every action has, and how much the leader concerns about his / her teammates influence what kind of team he / she will have. As I've written many many times in this blog, I've been in an organization called H-LAB for two years in low. Last year, unfortunately, I did not have a good health condition. I had acute stress gastritis and my doctor strongly suggested staying at home in Hiroshima with my parents so that I was able to get balanced diet made by my mother. I, therefore, wasn't able to attend so many meetings held in Tokyo, and I was not able to do my work sufficiently. But I was not able to reveal I was in a bad health, because I did not want them to recognize me as a person who have a low tolerance for stress. I was so ashamed. The leader of the group one day asked me a reason why my work was beyond the schedule. Since I was very sorry about my late work, I confessed that I had acute stress gastritis. I was thinking he would have scolded me for not telling this earlier. He, however, did not get mad, but instead, he said, "Sorry that I did not see how tough situation you were in, and now I know I there is a lack in my leadership ... I know it required a great courage, for you, to confess this, but the problem is me. I wasn't able to notice your situation." Then I felt sooooo guilty, and sorry for not telling the truth earlier. I thought, if I had told them about this earlier, he would not be feeling like that and he would have dealt with this, which would have given both of us, happy and trustful feelings. What I learned from this experience is that it is very important for leaders to provide comfortable and open environments for their teammates, which means they really need time for personal relationship like Nomikai (飲み会), and leaders need to be a keen observer so that leaders would not miss opportunities to act like Shackleton, self-sacrifice actions for their teammates.

Bye!