Blog 9 Reflections

This leadership class has been very beneficial in helping me look at myself and see what type of leader I am and what type of leader that I want to be and how I can become it.  The surveys and evaluations, including StrengthsQuest and the Leadership Performance Inventory.  These tools right away helped me realize my strengths and weaknesses that I possessed as a leader.  This helped me write my own leadership philosophy.  I am hoping to build off of my philosophy even after the class has ended.

From StrengthsQuest, I learned that my five strengths are achiever, competition, strategic, positivity, and woo.  Before this test, I would  have agreed with achiever and positivity.  But I would not have guessed the other three.  After reading the definitions and talking about them in class to understand them more, then I began to agree and see why those three would be in my top five.  Just by taking a simple quiz, I was able to learn more about myself and learn the ways that I lead best.  I also liked how we got to talk and interact with others in class that did not have the same strengths and they were able to explain to us how they best exemplified those strengths and helped us understand how they work best.

One of the activities that I really liked in class was the one where we were put into three groups and each group had a person that was blindfolded in the square and as a group we had to maneuver the blindfolded person around objects so they could pick up the objects designated for our group.  I felt like this activity truly exemplified being a leader.  As a group, we had to work together amid the chaos that was other groups directing their person as well as the objects inside the square.  That is how most situations can go.  We have to work together if we want to accomplish difficult tasks.

Overall, I enjoyed this class and the new things it taught me about leadership and about myself.  I have used some of the tactics that we have learned in class and applied them to my current jobs.  I think that I am a better leader now and will continue to grow as a leader as I use the leadership styles we learned in class and apply them to my positions in life.

Peck's Theory

When thinking about a sense of community that I have been involved in, I think about the sports team that I have been apart of.  From the beginning of the season to the end, the team is always trying to become closer and create a sense of a community, or team in this matter, that greatly aligns with Peck's theory.  The team goes through a process to ultimately achieve their goals.  I will reference my senior year of basketball as the community.

The first stage, the pseudo community, the team is in offseason training and we begin to see who the leaders will be.  My senior year, we had six seniors and for a basketball team, that is a lot of one team.  Along with the seniors, we had four juniors that had played varsity the previous year.  The year before, our record was not what we were expecting.  So our senior year, we really pushed ourselves and that helped us come together more as a group and a unit.  I would say that the chaos stage occurred during our second conference game.  We had been thinking that we could win a conference championship and that we had the team to do it.  However, we lost our second conference game to a team that we definitely should not have lost to and the next night we almost lost to a team that we were better than.  At this point, we could either give into each other fighting and bickering or we could regroup and refocus on what our goals were as a team.  We chose the second option and that is where the third stage comes in.  We came together as a team and had a team meeting.  After that meeting we went on to have a great season and win the conference championship, our first in basketball in over 30 years.

Not only did we bring our team together as an authentic community, but the actual community came together behind us.  Our games were packed every night with people that may not have seen a game in years.  We felt good knowing that we had the community behind us and that by us coming together and not only winning games, but winning them as a team, we could bring so many people together.  The game truly was bigger than ourselves.

Blog 6

Based on the LPI, my highest was encourage the heart and my lowest was inspire a shared vision.  Honestly, I think that my placings are pretty accurate overall.  I think all 5 were scored close to what I should expect.  I really think that I do a good job of encouraging others when they deserve it and when it is appropriate.  I know that I do have a problem sharing a vision that I may have.  I have that vision but do not express it well in a way that may inspire others to follow my vision.  To help with sharing my vision, I need to find others who relate to the vision that I am trying to share because I believe that there is strength in numbers and that people respond to multiple people talking about a vision.  I also need to learn to express my vision in a way that others can align with and follow.

Random Act of Kindness

For my random act of kindness, I put a good luck note in my friends binder while we were studying together.  She did not know that I did this but sent me a thank you text once she found it before her exam.  I felt good knowing that I helped her study and that she felt more prepared overall.  I know that a little note can change someones day.  It can be the most simple of things but that person then realizes how much they mean to you and that you care for them.  

She ended up doing really good on the exam and the day after she took it, she surprised me with food.  So my little note in her binder and helping her study lead her to want to do something for me.  I was greatly appreciative of her buying me food.  I know that my note made her day just as she made mine with some lunch.  

I am sure that we all do "random" acts of kindness every day.  Whether it is holding the door for someone as they walk in a building or simply giving a compliment to someone.  Those little acts can change anyones day from a bad day into a good day.  It only takes a moment. 

Moral Muteness

Like many others, my moral muteness situation was at work as well.  In high school, I worked at a local restaurant.  I hadn't been there too long but had heard some people talking about a lady that was a cook in the back.  They said that she may have been stealing some boxes of frozen food here and there.  I never actually witnessed it so I did not think that I should say anything because it may just be a rumor and I did not want to get a person in trouble if they really weren't doing anything wrong because like I said, I had not actually witnessed it.  Come to find out, about a month later, the lady was fired because they found boxes of food in her car before she was about to leave one day.  I just felt a weird feeling because I knew about the situation a month before and never said anything.

Looking back, I should have went to a superior and let them know.  The lady wouldn't get in trouble if she wasn't doing anything wrong.  So it would have been better to just bring it to their attention and let them look into it.  If she wasn't stealing then she would be just fine.  But I had the moral obligation to bring it to their attention and I didn't do it.  I have learned from that situation and honestly cannot think of too many since that time a few  years ago.

Blog #3

I took quizzes for age, weight and gender-career.  Coming away from these quizzes, I really was not too surprised with my results.  They are pretty close to what I would say I associate myself with.  

I assumed that I would have a slight bias towards younger people because that is who I am around the majority of my time whether I am in classes, at work, or out with friends.  However, once I got my results, I received that I was slightly bias towards older people.  This surprised me at first but then I thought of my superiors such as professors and my managers at work.  They may have influenced my bias a little.  Either way, I do not see my bias as really affecting the way that I think because it was only a slight bias towards the older generation.

The weight quiz was my second quiz so I understand how the quiz would be asked and how my results would come out.  With that in mind, I guessed that my result would be slightly or moderately towards thinner people.  My result ended up being slightly towards thin people.  I can understand this because I generally think of being active and playing sports.  That in no way means that bigger people cannot be active or play sports but in the most general sense of the term, active people tend to be thinner.

My last quiz was the gender-career one.  I got my results back saying that I slightly preferred male-career association and female family association.  I would completely agree with this bias for myself. I am going into sports for a career and it is a male dominated field.  Also growing up, my dad worked a job that required him to work 40 hours a week and then he may get called out all hours of the night. So my mom was the one that did most of the "family" things.  I totally believe that these roles can be reversed and don't think that woman belong at home and only men can work and provide for families.  But in my own personal experience, my dad did the majority of the working and providing for my family while my mom took care of the things at home.

Blog #2 Relational Leadership

I chose two clips from the movie Friday Night Lights.  Each one takes place at halftime of the state championship game.  In the first clip, a player named Ivory Christian, who is known as a great player but does not talk much, goes off on an emotional speech.  This is much to the delight of his teammate Boobie Miles who had talked to him earlier in the season and told him that he needed to be a leader.  Christian challenges his teammates.  The team that they are playing was known as the best team in the state and was just physically better than every other team.  But Ivory tells his teammates that they are just like them.  They both worked hard during two-a-days in 100 degree weather.  They should not be scared of them just because they are supposed to lose.  This is an example of a player stepping up and taking charge for his team.
The second clip is head coach Gary Gaines addressing the team during the same halftime of the championship game.  This is right before the team is to head back out to the field.  He asks his players if they can be perfect.  He goes on to say that being perfect is not about the scoreboard or winning.  Its about the players relationship with themselves and those around them.  He knows how hard his team has worked to be in this position but he wants to see them achieve more than winning a state championship.  He wants them to achieve in life.  He shows great leadership in caring for his players and knows that there is more to life than winning games.  He ends his speech by saying that his heart is full because of his players.