Being an Effective Leader: Literature Review

Being an Effective Leader: Literature Review Introduction How to be an effective leader? Leadership is not management or instruction. Leadership is the ability to inspire or influence others towards the leaders goal and a real leader have followers. If someone has followers, then he or she is a successful leader. Besides that, must be a real leader. A successful leader must make his or her followers believe that they are a team or family, not only the relationship between leader and subordinates only. If they have confidence in you and be your followers that is the successful beginning of the goal. However, an effective leader is someone who establishes a clear vision. Furthermore, leader should also be able to educate his subordinates since they have the ability to work independently. Next, for businesspeople, one of the important things have to worry about is to inspire people or influence others towards the leaders goal. Now, here are some methods to make tasks easier and how to be an effective leader such as positive attitude, self-asse ssment and be fully prepared.    Bee Kai Ying, 1507526 First: An effective leader must have positive attitude Firstly, positive attitude is important for a leader. A great leader is able to control their emotion well. They would not bring negative emotion to work. This is because they know these emotions can affect others especially people in leadership position. For example, when facing a problem that are not expected, from ability to stay clam can bring confidence to team members and prevent other team members feeling confuse. Moreover, a good leader will seek advice from team member without caring their position. Besides that, a positive thinker will not be jealous others ability and are willing to learn from them. Positive thinkers team can improve a lot. For example, a positive thinking team will treat a difficult situation as a chance to show their ability while a negative thinking team will not because they are worry for failure. Even when positive thinker fail in the challenges but they can quickly overcome failure and accept the challenges again. They will not stop because of the fa ilure but will improve because of learning the failure and never give up. At last, positive thinking not only affected the leader themselves but will also affected the team members and encourage the team toward their personal or team goals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      Wong Chung Hing ,1507484 Second: Effective leaders own self-assessment Self-assessment is the process for leaders to evaluate their performances, behaviours and have better understanding on their strengths and weaknesses. As a result of owning self-assessment skill, they are able to work on their limitations and improve their abilities including confidence, communication skill and team-building skill as an effective leader. Moreover, leaders are able to hire the subordinates or team-mates who complement him on his insignificance. There are some tools and techniques have been prepared for self-assessment and one of the most famous tool is Leadership Steps Assessment (LSA) (James G. Clawson, 1999). By using LSA, one can learn on clarifying one selfs centre, whats possible and what others can contribute, supporting others, being relentless as well as celebrating progress. In addition, leader should always know the perception of people on him. He may request the people to comment on his best and worst qualities and eventually improve the best qualities whil e getting rid of the worst qualities. Last but not least, leader who own self-assessment will learn from their mistakes once they realize their errors. They will face the mistakes and take the responsibility to overcome them.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Chong Yee Lee 150784 Third: be an effective leader must have fully preparation To become an effective leader one must prepare yourself to lead well before you do anything. First, make a list of everything you need to do. Opportunities are often the beginning of the great cause when you are ready to welcome the opportunity, better than have a chance and you are not prepared yourself. When leaders fail it is due to lack of preparation. Next, the leader never stopped being accountable to yourself and others. You cant expect subordinates to perform better if they are not prepared to successfully deliver what you expect from them. Because the things you express to subordinates and what their receive of the ideas is different. Being prepared for the unexpected is your accountable. For example, when the leader demands more from subordinates, enforcement of pressure rises so does the pressure guides subordinates rightly done their own position job. At the same times, improve the performance of the standards for the leader you will notice that preparation become a major measure of success. A leader needs to brush up yourself, such as invest in your own skill sets and capabilities to improve your solution to problem-solving. The preparation does not guarantee success, but the lack of preparation can certainly happen your tendency to failure.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lee Chi San, 1508085 Conclusion Last but not least, a great leader is a person who must have positive attitude, self-assessment, and be fully prepared. First, an effective leader should be able to fully prepared. When a leader has fully prepared before doing anything, it will help to decrease the rate of failure of the goal. For example, a leader should prepare or provide a vision for where the company is heading in such a way that people can buy into that vision. Secondly, leader must have own self-assessment. For example, leader will learn from their mistakes towards the goals. It will win the heart of the people you are leading and the possibilities are endless. Thirdly, leader also should have positive attitudes. Effective leaders inspire you and influence others all their thoughts, words and actions are charged. They look inside and bring the best of you to the surface.For example, a leader must be a positive thinker, good example and good mirror in front of people, because it can inspire people towards the go al. In short, a successful leader can lead all subordinates together to achieve the goal and let all subordinates voluntarily follow from the start to the end. This is what an effective leader must have.   Ã‚  Ã‚   1507526, Bee Kai Ying Why Do Countries Trade With One Another? Why Do Countries Trade With One Another? There are several reasons why countries trade with one another. Trade among nations is taken as a sign of good intent and a means of maintaining non-hostile diplomatic relations. Trade is used to empower allied nations by providing them with valued resources such as oil, grain, or bullets, as well as crippling and weakening rivals by imposing economic sanctions on goods services such as: military armaments, food, or medicine. Bans such as these are used to punish nations or motivate a change in their political and economic behavior. A course of action that the United States of America has pursued several times when suspect of nations endoursing terrorism. Moreover, trade unifies neighbouring countries with shared economic ideals by creating a common currency and trade laws that bolster each partys economic power. The establishment of the euro for example in 2002 united 12 countries and is now used in 22 countries, currently overpowering the US dollar.   Essentially countries trade in order to purchase goods and/or services that would not have been available within their borders either due to insufficient resources or underdeveloped technology. Therefore through trade, countries are able to obtain any desired good or service that would have otherwise been unattainable or would have placed a burden on economic activity. International trade may be described as a interdependent web of sustainability among countries. International trade therefore mirrors specialisation, this being a key concept underlined in the law of comparative advantage. The law of comparative advantage involves the opportunity costs of two or more parties (a firm or company, in this case a country) in their production of a good or service and highlights their ability in producing it at the highest possible efficiency in relation to all the other possible goods or services that could have been produced in its place. In this sense, there is merit in trading with other countries when international differences are present in the opportunity cost of given goods. An isolated economy with limited resources is able to produce tractors and hats for instance. The more resources allocated in the production of tractors, the less are available for the production of hats and vice versa. The opportunity cost of tractors is the quantity of hats sacrificed seeing that resource allocation was focused on the production of tractors and not hats.  This situation can be illustrated by the diagram overleaf: Diagram (a) shows the maximum combination of tractors and hats this economy can produce. In the event that all resources were used to produce maximum tractor output while sacrificing the production of hats all-together, then the outcome would be shown by point A. Similarly, point D represents the event that the economy sacrificed the production of tractors to achieve maximum hat output.  Points B and C correspond to relative trade-offs. Point E represents inefficient use of resources, while point F requires more resources than the economy has at hand and can only be achieved by development of the given economy. The curve A-D is known as the production possibility curve. Using the principle of comparative advantage, countries derive whether it would be beneficial to start trading and if so, if it should export or import. Take for instance the market for wheat. The wheat industry is large seeing that it is produced in many countries making it a good example in terms of analysing the gains and losses a country may experience as a result of trade. For example, Country As market for wheat is isolated from the world market. There are no transactions be it exports or imports and the market for it is comprised uniquely by its domestic buyers and sellers. The diagram overleaf depicts the market equilibrium without international trade: (b) In an economy like Country As, domestic supply and demand are balanced by adjusting the price. In the absence of international trade consumer and producer surplus are in equilibrium.   To determine whether or not Country A should trade with other countries the domestic price of wheat should be compared to that of other countries, commonly known as the world price. If the domestic price of wheat is lower than the world price then Country A becomes an exporter of wheat seeing that domestic wheat producers take advantage of the increased foreign prices and begin selling to other countries. By contrast, if Country As domestic price of wheat were higher than the world price then it becomes an importer of wheat since consumers are eager to buy cheaper wheat from abroad.   The principle of comparative advantage is a key element as far as trade is concerned. By considering the domestic price in relation to the world price of wheat Country A derives whether or not it has a comparative advantage in producing it. The opportunity cost of wheat is derived from the domestic value. In other words, how much of another good Country A has to sacrifice in order to produce one unit of wheat. A low production price of wheat states that Country A has a comparative advantage to the rest of the world. Conversely, if Country A has a high production value, other countries have a comparative advantage.   Diagram (b) shows the domestic equilibrium price and quantity for wheat during pre-trade conditions. Once Country A starts trading, the domestic price increases to reach the world price level. This is to say that domestic producers will now sell at this new increased price which in turn forces consumers to pay more. This is shown by the diagram below: (c) Quantity demanded and quantity supplied differ when in trade. The new excess quantity is used as exports to other countries. Before trading, the price level adjusted itself so that domestic supply and demand could balance. Consumer surplus being areas A + B and producer surplus area C. Total surplus summing up to areas A + B + C. Now that a new price has been set, consumer surplus is A while areas B + C + D are the producer surplus. The new total surplus is A + B + C + D. Producers surplus increases by areas B and D making them better-off. While consumer surplus is reduced by area B. Due to producer gain trumping consumer loss, total surplus in Country A increases. This example shows how trade bolsters the economic state of a country and reinforces the pro-trade argument. Following these points, one concludes by saying that trade among nations is beneficial seeing that it allows each party to allocate its resources accordingly in order to specialise in what it does best, while obtaining other desired goods at a lower rate. When countries decide what to specialise in upon entering trade with one another, their opportunity costs are taken into consideration seeing as relative production costs differ from country to country.  The following model puts into practice the example with hats and tractors. Take for instance two countries producing hats and tractors, Greece and Britain. British workers earn 6 pounds an hour whereas Greek workers earn 3 euro and have an absolute advantage in terms of both goods. Table 1 shows that less British unit labour hours are needed for both goods. Britain is relatively more productive in terms of tractors seeing that it takes 1.5 times longer for Greece to produce one. However, it takes Greece only 5/4 times longer to make a hat.  Britain holds the comparative advantage for tractor production and Greece in hats. By sacrificing 10 hats, Britain acquires 40 extra labour hours to make a Tractor.  The opportunity cost of a tractor in Britain is 10 hats and 12 hats in Greece. The opportunity cost of Greece however (1/12 of a tractor) is less than the opportunity cost in Britain ( 1/10 of a tractor.).  Once again, this proves that Britain has a comparative advantage in tractors and Greece in hats. Specialisation and trade allows these countries to produce and trade each good more efficiently. Greece focuses on hat production a nd Britain on tractor. Trade has proven to be a very beneficial course of action for countries to take part in. Benefits from trade range from maintaining good-willed relations between nations, to empowering allies with precious resources, to weakening foes by stripping them away and finally to allow each country to obtain goods and services in demand that would have otherwise been impossible to attain. Through the principle of comparative advantage countries determine a number of factors. Initially, with the use of a production possibility frontier diagram, they derive opportunity costs for different combinations of producing goods. Efficient resource allocation paves the way to specialisation of goods. Secondly, they see if they have a comparative advantage in entering international trade and exporting (buying). Trade, exports to be more precise, increase countries economic power as it increases Total Surplus. Finally, when faced with the option of multiple good production, countries compare their compar ative advantage in relation to each good and settle for the most efficient outcome. As a result of specialisation all parties benefit from reduced costs.

The Departed/Internal Affairs Film Comparison

The Departed, a film directed by Martin Scorsese, won an Oscar for Best Picture, as well as 3 other Academy Awards. The story however, is based on a 2002 Hong Kong film directed by Wai-keung Lau and Siu Fai Mak, Mougaan dou; better known to us as Infernal Affairs. The similarities between these two crime/drama/thrillers are great. In The Departed, director Martin Scorsese takes the story into his own style of storytelling, but the adaptation of the screenplay originally written by director Siu Fai Mak and Felix Chong is almost identical to the screenplay by William Monahan adapted for The Departed. The key overall difference between the two films can be attributed to their setting. Infernal Affairs, based in Hong Kong, was adapted or â€Å"Americanized† to fit American customs and situations, namely the situation in south Boston with the Irish mafia â€Å"some time ago. Neither film specifies an exact historical era. There is an equivalent to most Infernal Affairs characters in The Departed: you have the mole in the Hong Kong IAU (internal affairs unit), Inspector Lau Kin Ming, played by Andy Lau, who is the equivalent to Matt Damon’s role as the mole in the Boston State Police, Colin Sullivan; there’re the undercover cops, Chan Wing Yan (Tony Leung Chi Shing) and William Costigan Jr. (Le onardo Di Caprio); there’s the boss of the Hong Kong mafia (the Triads), Hon Sam (Eric Tsang), and the Irish mafioso, Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson). The head of the Boston State Police is Captain Queenan (Martin Sheen), who is mirrored after SP Wong Chi Shing (Anthony Wong Chau-Sang). There is no real equivalent to Mark Walberg’s character, Staff Sgt. Dignam, but I’m glad they added him. The two films share similar style and techniques; however it is easy to distinguish Scorsese’s directing. Both films make good use of moving shots, which only add to the liveliness of the action. The Departed has virtually no special effects at all, using editing to only to cut and colour correct. Infernal Affairs is similar to that, but makes much more use of fast editing and montage, using slight special effects for transitions and introducing key characters, using a combination of freeze frame and a desaturation filter for instance. Small effects are used in moderation throughout the film to add to the movie’s overall intensity, and makes fast cuts with multiple angles to create emphasis and a fast-paced feel in certain scenes. The overall style of the films is fairly similar: predominant use of medium to long shots, steadicam, tracking, and crane shots can be seen throughout both films. Therefore this Creates fast paced movements and a flow which also generates this overall feel of realism. Both films start relatively the same: the gang boss recruits new, young blood to put through the academy to work as moles for them. Although Costello recruits Sullivan at an earlier age than Sam, they both seem to be raising workers for the same purpose (at the beginning, we see other kids in the car shop with Colin, who can be expected to be there for the same reason), and the stories each focus on Colin (Costello’s mole), Lau (Sam’s mole), Costigan (State Police undercover), and Wing-Yan

Columbus vs. de Las Casas

In the textbook of Bartolome de las Casas From The Very Brief Relation of the Devastation of the Indies, de la Casas said â€Å"This was the first land in the New World to be destroyed and depopulated by the Christians, and here they began their subjection of the women and children, taking them away from the Indians to use them and ill use them, eating the food they provided with their sweat and toil. Base on this saying we can guest his thought about the New World and its inhabitants, he explains how the Spaniards have behaved and acting, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before. De las Casas think this new world was the first one to be devastated destroyed and conquered by imperialist and colonialist Spaniards. Columbus’s letters we can see the arrogance he possessed in claiming the islands he found. In his letter describing his findings to his king, he wrote, â€Å"And there I found very many islands filled with people innumerable and of them all I have taken possession for their Highnesses. †¦Ã¢â‚¬  Columbus never stopped to consider that these islands were not his to take, nor were the people that inhabited them. He simply took over these lands, even going so far as to rename them all. His first sight of what he termed â€Å"Indians† was of a group of attractive, unclothed people. Speculation is that, to him, their nakedness represented a lack of culture, customs, and religion. Columbus saw this as an opportunity to spread the word of God, while at the same considering how they could possibly be exploited. He believed that they would be easy to conquer because they appeared defenseless, easy to trick because they lacked experience in trade, and an easy source of profit because they could be enslaved. It obviously did not occur to Columbus to consider these people in any terms aside from that of master and slave. Columbus thinks that New World could be well adapted for the working of the gold mines and for all kinds of commerce.

Biography of Srinivasa Ramanujan, Mathematical Genius

Srinivasa Ramanujan (born December 22, 1887 in Erode, India) was an Indian mathematician who made substantial contributions to mathematics—including results in number theory, analysis, and infinite series—despite having little formal training in math. Fast Facts: Srinivasa Ramanujan Full Name: Srinivasa Aiyangar RamanujanKnown For: Prolific mathematicianParents’ Names: K. Srinivasa Aiyangar, KomalatammalBorn: December 22, 1887 in Erode, IndiaDied: April 26, 1920 at age 32 in Kumbakonam, IndiaSpouse: JanakiammalInteresting Fact: Ramanujans life is depicted in a book published in 1991 and a 2015 biographical film, both titled The Man Who Knew Infinity. Early Life and Education Ramanujan was born on December 22, 1887, in Erode, a city in southern India. His father, K. Srinivasa Aiyangar, was an accountant, and his mother Komalatammal was the daughter of a city official. Though Ramanujan’s family was of the Brahmin caste, the highest social class in India, they lived in poverty. Ramanujan began attending school at the age of 5. In 1898, he transferred to Town High School in Kumbakonam. Even at a young age, Ramanujan demonstrated extraordinary proficiency in math, impressing his teachers and upperclassmen. However, it was G.S. Carr’s book, A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure Mathematics, which reportedly spurred Ramanujan to become obsessed with the subject. Having no access to other books, Ramanujan taught himself mathematics using Carr’s book, whose topics included integral calculus and power series calculations. This concise book would have an unfortunate impact on the way Ramanujan wrote down his mathematical results later, as his writings included too few details for many people to understand how he arrived at his results. Ramanujan was so interested in studying mathematics that his formal education effectively came to a standstill. At the age of 16, Ramanujan matriculated at the Government College in Kumbakonam on a scholarship, but lost his scholarship the next year because he had neglected his other studies. He then failed the First Arts examination in 1906, which would have allowed him to matriculate at the University of Madras, passing math but failing his other subjects. Career For the next few years, Ramanujan worked independently on mathematics, writing down results in two notebooks. In 1909, he began publishing work in the Journal of the Indian Mathematical Society, which gained him recognition for his work despite lacking a university education. Needing employment, Ramanujan became a clerk in 1912 but continued his mathematics research and gained even more recognition. Receiving encouragement from a number of people, including the mathematician Seshu Iyer, Ramanujan sent over a letter along with about 120 mathematical theorems to G. H. Hardy, a lecturer in mathematics at Cambridge University in England. Hardy, thinking that the writer could either be a mathematician who was playing a prank or a previously undiscovered genius, asked another mathematician J.E. Littlewood, to help him look at Ramanujan’s work. The two concluded that Ramanujan was indeed a genius. Hardy wrote back, noting that Ramanujan’s theorems fell into roughly three categories: results that were already known (or which could easily be deduced with known mathematical theorems); results that were new, and that were interesting but not necessarily important; and results that were both new and important. Hardy immediately began to arrange for Ramanujan to come to England, but Ramanujan refused to go at first because of religious scruples about going overseas.  However, his mother dreamed that the Goddess of Namakkal commanded her to not prevent Ramanujan from fulfilling his purpose. Ramanujan arrived in England in 1914 and began his collaboration with Hardy. In 1916, Ramanujan obtained a Bachelor of Science by Research (later called a Ph.D.) from Cambridge University. His thesis was based on highly composite numbers, which are integers that have more divisors (or numbers that they can be divided by) than do integers of smaller value. In 1917, however, Ramanujan became seriously ill, possibly from tuberculosis, and was admitted to a nursing home at Cambridge, moving to different nursing homes as he tried to regain his health. In 1919, he showed some recovery and decided to move back to India. There, his health deteriorated again and he died there the following year. Personal Life On July 14, 1909, Ramanujan married Janakiammal, a girl whom his mother had selected for him. Because she was 10 at the time of marriage, Ramanujan did not live together with her until she reached puberty at the age of 12, as was common at the time. Honors and Awards 1918, Fellow of the Royal Society1918, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge University In recognition of Ramanujan’s achievements, India also celebrates Mathematics Day on December 22, Ramanjan’s birthday. Death Ramanujan died on April 26, 1920 in Kumbakonam, India, at the age of 32. His death was likely caused by an intestinal disease called hepatic amoebiasis. Legacy and Impact Ramanujan proposed many formulas and theorems during his lifetime. These results, which include solutions of problems that were previously considered to be unsolvable, would be investigated in more detail by other mathematicians, as Ramanujan relied more on his intuition rather than writing out mathematical proofs. His results include: An infinite series for Ï€, which calculates the number based on the summation of other numbers. Ramanujan’s infinite series serves as the basis for many algorithms used to calculate Ï€.The Hardy-Ramanujan asymptotic formula, which provided a formula for calculating the partition of numbers—numbers that can be written as the sum of other numbers. For example, 5 can be written as 1 4, 2 3, or other combinations.The Hardy-Ramanujan number, which Ramanujan stated was the smallest number that can be expressed as the sum of cubed numbers in two different ways. Mathematically, 1729 13 123 93 103. Ramanujan did not actually discover this result, which was actually published by the French mathematician Frà ©nicle de Bessy in 1657. However, Ramanujan made the number 1729 well known.1729 is an example of a â€Å"taxicab number,† which is the smallest number that can be expressed as the sum of cubed numbers in n different ways. The name derives from a conversati on between Hardy and Ramanujan, in which Ramanujan asked Hardy the number of the taxi he had arrived in. Hardy replied that it was a boring number, 1729, to which Ramanujan replied that it was actually a very interesting number for the reasons above. Sources Kanigel, Robert. The Man Who Knew Infinity: A Life of the Genius Ramanujan. Scribner, 1991.Krishnamurthy, Mangala. â€Å"The Life and Lasting Influence of Srinivasa Ramanujan.† Science Technology Libraries, vol. 31, 2012, pp. 230–241.Miller, Julius. â€Å"Srinivasa Ramanujan: A Biographical Sketch.† School Science and Mathematics, vol. 51, no. 8, Nov. 1951, pp. 637–645.Newman, James. â€Å"Srinivasa Ramanujan.† Scientific American, vol. 178, no. 6, June 1948, pp. 54–57.OConnor, John, and Edmund Robertson. â€Å"Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan.† MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, June 1998, www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/history/Biographies/Ramanujan.html.Singh, Dharminder, et al. â€Å"Srinvasa Ramanujans Contributions in Mathematics.† IOSR Journal of Mathematics, vol. 12, no. 3, 2016, pp. 137–139.â€Å"Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujan.† Ramanujan Museum Math Education Centre, M.A .T Educational Trust, www.ramanujanmuseum.org/aboutramamujan.htm.