The Japan Club is a student organization at Johnstone College. It meets once-a-week for the purpose of planning events for students taking Japanese and for helping the Japanese foreign exchange students that come here every year meet new people. The last three years there have been three different presidents as each of the previous presidents have graduated. This year, the president’s name is Steve. Although Steve has been involved with the group a lot over the years and has even been to Japan, this is his first year as president. So far, I have only attended one meeting because of class, but even at that one meeting I noticed that he didn’t seem to be an effective president. Along with me, most of the members from last year have graduated. However, I am the only one who is pursuing my MBA so I have the opportunity to be with this club for an extra year. So, this is the first year that there are all new members who are all freshmen just starting to learn Japanese. Steve has an extroverted personality. He is extremely outgoing, likes to tell jokes, and is a good public speaker. He is also knowledgeable about the Japanese language and culture so he is probably the best option for president. Although I have taken just as many years of Japanese as he has, he has also been to Japan so he is more experienced than me. Steve is definitely aware that all the members are freshmen. However, because he has been in college for so long, he probably doesn’t remember what it is like to be a freshman. This was probably these new members’ first meeting as a college student. Like I was, the new members were probably a little nervous, which can be explained through shyness. Steve was his usual talkative self. He tried to use a democratic style when figuring out what we were going to do as a club for this semester. Examples of some of the activities include watching Japanese movies and going to Japanese restaurants to eat sushi. The problem with using this style was that no one knew of any Japanese movies or anime that we should watch because this was everyone’s first year. To try to get them to talk more, Steve made jokes by making fun of them because no one was talking much. Although he was only joking, this might’ve been the first time that these freshmen have met him. While this was his way of trying to lighten the atmosphere and make them feel more relaxed, it may have not been the most effective. This may have even caused the new members to be more intimidated by him. We did end up getting some ideas of activities to do this semester, but there probably weren’t as many as Steve would’ve liked or enough variety. Steve needs to start to remember that these are freshmen and aren’t as knowledgeable as him. He also needs to understand them from their perspective and realize that everyone isn’t as outgoing as he is. After the meeting, Steve, Mike (the vice president), Akira (the Japanese foreign exchange student), and I all congregated to discuss how the meeting went. Steve realized that the meeting didn’t go as well as he would’ve liked and asked us what we thought of the new members. We all agreed that they were quiet and a little strange, but none of us mentioned to Steve that he may have been a little too overenthusiastic. Later that week, Steve and I met with our Japanese teacher and discussed how the first meeting went with her as well. We told her how quiet the kids were and Steve even asked her for advice on how to do a better job next time. Questions: 1. How did Steve’s lack of empathy limit his ability to connect with the new members? 2. How can Steve be a more effective leader and get the members to participate more? 3. Besides empathy, what other capacities does Steve possess or lack? 4. When would this style of leadership be more effective?
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