2/8(Sat)Incompetent Leaders/ Coronavirus Outbreak(Host:Iris)

[Iris Wu]

Session I: Incompetent Leaders
“Why do so many incompetent men become leaders?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... e=emb_logo

"He who knows things, knows things, he who does not... is a boss."
“Management is just nature's way of taking unproductive people out of the productive flow of work.”
The statements, quoted from YouTube comments, sound very cynical, but isn’t there some truth in them?

The speaker, who was from Argentina originally, cracked another joke, "One of the best investments you can make is to buy an Argentine for what he's actually worth and sell him for what he thinks he's worth."
Do people always have an inflated sense of self-worth? Is it true that the more you overrate yourself, the higher you can move up in your career?

In today’s first session, “Why do so many incompetent people become leaders”, we will share our real-world experience on this and discuss how to prevent or reduce incompetent leaders in general.

Session I Questions:
Q1: Have you ever worked with people who think they are better/smarter/more capable than they actually are? How was the experience? When you Google “my boss is…,” how do those adjectives apply to your boss? Or if you are a boss, does any of the descriptions fit you, too?

Q2: Why do you think so many incompetent men/women became leaders?
(Hints: Can you distinguish between confidence and competence? Do you love charismatic individuals? Do you think you could unconsciously fall for narcissistic individuals?)

Q3: How can the conventional advice for leadership sometimes lead to incompetent leaders?
(Hints: Do these attributes—confidence, loving yourself, undeterred by other’s opinions—make a good leader?)

Q4: What can we do to prevent incompetent people from becoming leaders?

Session II: The Outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV)
In the second session, we’ll have a chat about the current event, Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak, which has gotten the whole world watching and worried. What caused the virus mutation? Do you believe any conspiracy theories?

The epidemic situation is changing on a daily basis and no one seems to know how it will play out as yet. Do you think the spread of the deadly virus will accelerate even more rapidly? Or if you believe the epidemic will be quickly contained by advanced medical technology and global efforts?

Reference Materials: (Notes: We may update the list since the epidemic is evolving.)

• WHO: Novel Coronavirus(2019-nCoV) Situation Report - 11
  https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease ... on-reports
  
  Coronavirus misinformation: Who can you trust? (CBC Canada News, 1/26/2020, 11min)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOeBBnTD6qg
  
  How Can the Coronavirus Impact China’s Economy? (DW News)
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBAsQLKd44w
  
  China Coronavirus: Global Emergency
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2vNwMN8F0A

Session II Questions:
Q1: What is Coronavirus 2019-nCoV? Why has it put the whole world on the alert? How did it start? Do you believe any conspiracy theories?

Q2: Do you trust the Chinese government in handling this epidemic? If the outbreak had first started in Taiwan, do you think our government would have handled it better? (What would have been done better and what would not?)

Q3: How can the Coronavirus impact China’s economy? How will the market’s faith in the global economy be tested?

Q4: What are the global efforts in containing the spread? Though we know it is not right to gloat over others’ misfortune, do you still feel some degree of schadenfreude in the air over the Coronavirus exploding in China? Why so?
(“Schadenfreude” - finding joy in the misfortune of others; enjoyment obtained from the troubles of others)

********************************************************************************************************************************************
Agenda:
3:45 ~ 4:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
4:00 ~ 4:10pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
4:10 ~ 4:50pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
4:50 ~ 5:10pm Summarization (20 mins)
5:10 ~ 5:15pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
5:15 ~ 5:55pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
6:00 ~ 6:20pm Summarization (20 mins)
6:20 ~ 6:30pm Concluding Remarks / Announcements ********************************************************************************************************************************************
聚會日期：列於該貼文主題內
聚會時間：請準時 4:00 pm 到 ~ 約 6:30 pm 左右結束
星期六聚會地點：丹堤濟南店
地址、電話：台北市濟南路三段25號 地圖 (02) 2740-2350
捷運站：板南線 忠孝新生站 3 號出口
走法：出忠孝新生站 3 號出口後，沿著巷子(忠孝東路三段10巷)走約 2 分鐘，到了濟南路口，左轉走約 2 分鐘即可看到。
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[Kooper]

I hate to sound skeptical, but ironically the speaker happened to display some of the qualities that he warned could mislead people into choosing an incompetent leader: he spoke with confidence, oozing irresistible charm and was no doubt full of humor; above all, he is a man! Don’t all these together make him look more authoritative and highly convincing?

[Iris Wu]

I hate to sound skeptical, but ironically the speaker happened to display some of the qualities that he warned could mislead people into choosing an incompetent leader: he spoke with confidence, oozing irresistible charm and was no doubt full of humor; above all, he is a man! Don’t all these together make him look more authoritative and highly convincing?

The only thing is the speaker is a professor and psychologist, not pursuing a leader/management position. Besides, his point is to distinguish between competence and confidence. I don’t think he means confidence is a bad thing, only when incompetence is hidden under the overconfidence, then it becomes an issue. The advice is to assess a person’s confidence, if you think he is overly confident without true competence, then it’s your responsibility to denounce them or not to choose them as your leaders, if the decision is in your hands.

[Janice Wang]

With a relatively short-lived and lacklustre working history; usually, I give a wide berth to any job-related talks. No matter how you slice it, my brief fledgling working experience makes me feel like in no way in my element to get down to business. As a rookie, didn’t know a thing or two about how to pave the way for becoming a better employee - the most worrisome concern I had was living in dread of being chucked out of my job. Moreover, things close to my heart then were none other than charging full-steam ahead to make a go of the assigned tasks, taking good care of business by breaking my back; hopefully, not dropping the ball to get on my boss’ bad side. Fair to say, an inexperienced subordinate is not qualified to geek out over “leadership”, perhaps even gets to be an important promoter of an incompetent leader!

I had come across 4 bosses, all females, over my 8 years working experience; lo and behold, it prevents me from putting a right spin on an incompetent male leader, all but an incompetent female leader. Well color me hesitated as I have no intention to undermine the speaker’s talk, which is based on large-scale scientific studies that women score higher than men in measures of competence, humility, and integrity, which are the core qualities of a good leader. In actual fact, I would never be able to drive “leadership” home as I was basically a slave for the salary - the bigger the fat paycheck they would hand over, the less administration and management I could care. Hate to make myself the likes of a working machine; however, it finally turns my flat career loose and is exactly why I got put the kibosh on moving up the corporate ladder.

With respect to the distinction between confidence and competence; neither do I have confidence in my ability nor competence in my reliability to lift the veil on the difference between them; however, I can’t help but flash back to one of Iris’ hosting topics related to the “Dunning-Kruger Effect", which demonstrates how prevailing attitude an incompetent individual can exude towards confidence besides those incompetent leaders. Furthermore, for those who have ever watched the singing show, “American Idol”, we were all impressed by those confident but not competent auditions. I think it well proves that competence can inspire confidence, but confidence does not necessarily imply a foundation in competence. I guess I’m fine with an incompetent individual, maybe birds of a feather; as long as the very leader who is at the helm of our overall wellbeing is competent enough, is she?!

[Iris Wu]

Good question, Janice!
That’s why I didn’t want to use the whole title of the speech. It’s one of the two points that I don’t necessarily agree with the speaker. I am not sure the female leaders are more competent than their male counterparts.
Right, when I was doing the prep for the hosting, I realized that this topic is somewhat related to Dunning-Kruger effect. I started to think I might either be biased, or a true believer on human being’s blind spots in self-awareness.

[Iris Wu]

OK. I guess I am an incompetent host today!

Thanks for "taking the risk" to join the meeting:
Attendees: Kat, Tashi, Jerry, Gloria, Jason, Rock, Timothy, Tom, Steve, Sherry, Julian, Lewis, Leon, Iris (host).