Hello!! This is the last blog for this class (can you believe it?!). It's been a wonderful journey looking deeper into me and leadership! Let's recap now, shall we?

 Back to the beginning of the quarter, I simply thought leadership was black and white. A person was a leader when they stepped up or were voted into a position that requires a leader. Going through the class, I've realized anyone can be a leader in many different situations! There's so many more models than the classic pyramid (you know...with the "leader" on top and "followers" on the bottom. I found out there are webs and upside down pyramids and more! Black and white leadership idea=wrong! Time to add those colors!

"I simply don't live in a tower in the middle of some hidden forest..."

Now I know what you're thinking...how have you "added those colors" or used this new leadership knowledge? In many ways, let me tell ya! First of all, my job (as an office assistant) involves more leadership than I realized. No, there's not an actual head employee or president: we're just all employees. We still are called to be leaders every shift we work. We have to use our knowledge and step up to make the necessary calls to the necessary people. The main objective? Help to keep the residents safe which means some tricky judgement calls sometimes. That's a leadership role. I've also been more involved in voicing out opinions and ideas in the clubs I'm in. Each opinion counts and some actually turn into leadership roles (like prosposing an idea for an event then helping to head the committees to plan it). To sum this all up, the new knowledge I've gained about leadership can be used all the time! I simply don't live in a tower in the middle of some hidden forest...meaning I interact with people everyday! Everyday interactions with co-workers and club members help plan a role too! From what I've learned, in order to lead others, you all have to be on the same page and understand one another which is why this interaction is so great!



           Personally, I've found mysef to be more aware of who I am and my strengths. From the getgo, I knew that I was more of a caring, not really competitive type of a person. I've discovered through different tests that I've taken and the course as a whole, how to work with being more of an emotionally driven person like myself. Using the knowledge I gained from class and the book I had to read (Leading with Soul), I've discovered that this kind of leadership role I play really places others first and makes sure everyone is on the same page. ("I've Got a Dream from Tangled shows how Rapunzel stepped up and helped out discovered their own dreams :))
           Leading with Soul emphasized this point even more because it took an inward look at how people lead. They discussed more of a spiritual side and how leading involves thinking about actions and then doing from within, from feeling and noticing your surroundings. It was a great read and without the class, I probably wouldn't have been exposed to it.
               The things I really see differently are the different ways in which leadership is being applied. In the clubs that I'm currently in, I notice that many of them are not the traditional pyramid with a president on top and so on. Some of the clubs I'm in are like this but I've noticed more and more how much power each individual has in a group. Each member of the club really has the power to go to the president or whoever and ask for proposals and work it out with the e-board on how to get there.
               I've found that the e-board and these higher powers serve as more of a bridge from point A to point B. They control the finances and have the right connections to get you what you need. There work really benefits the individual memebers. I'm changing because I've now realized I have more power in this way...

             How I'll continue to learn about leadership is probably going to be throughout the different clubs and orgs I'm in and will get involved in throughout the future. I also applied to be an RA and so far so good with that, so I really hope I'm able to make it all the way. Leadership I feel can come at you when you least expect it and someone has to stand up. With the skills I've learned in class and applied already, I think I'm prepared to take that role.
              I'm also going to learn alot by what I see other leaders do. Leadership and the different styles of leading evolve so rapidly, that I think everyone needs to pay attention and really become engaged in what their leaders are doing.

             My philosophy of leadership is that it's ever growing and changing. Anyone can be a leader but you have to be willing to take on that important role.  A leader uses compromise and thought to get to an action that can benefit everyone in the most effecient way possible. Leadership deals mostly with its followers. Without them, there is no leading person at all.
              To conclude, leadership and knowing the skills how to successfully lead, is one of those things that any person can carry for the rest of a life. Being a leader means that you know how to successffully deal with others and really make yourself stand out as well.

Thanks for reading! It's been fun :) "So long, farewell!"

LEADING with SOUL

Hello! For the past few weeks or so I've really gotten into this book called Leading With Soul by Bolman. As an active member in a church now and all of my life so far, I related to this book in more than one way. Keep in mind though, you don't need to be religious to appreciate this. I'm going to give you a little background here...
We begin our spiritual, soulful journey meeting Steven Camden. He is a tired, worn, manager and seems out of touch. He meets a woman, Maria, that helps him find his way back and shows him how to lead...with soul.

How often do you have "tunnel vision"?

"A journey of the soul is a quest through uncharted territory. You find your way by opening your eyes. And your heart." This phrase in the book impacted me. The book mentioned "tunnel vision". Think about this: how often do you have tunnel vision going into things, such as leading? You need to OPEN your eyes and see everyone and everything in front of you to lead. You also need to open your heart and be understanding with them as well.

Rebirth from Devastation

"Tradgedy is the author of hope. Crisis brings us face to face with our soul." This portion of the book shows how tradgedy often transforms you for the better. Sometimes you have to take a step back really and see how things are impacted. You can grow from tradgedies. This book spoke a lot about nature and tradgedy makes me think of a forest fire. The fire can easily burn down the forest but can also help in the renewal process.

Money can't buy you happiness (or, in the words of the Beatles, love)

"We swallow the bait, ignoring the growing evidence that people who focus their lives on money are demonstrably less happy than people who strive for other, deeper purposes." Isn't this true? Money does not buy happiness. It merely is an aspect that helps you get there. You have to really envision the bigger picture to understand this. If a leader can't see the bigger picture, how can they really see what the real important things are?

Another part that really struck me from the book discusses failure. As leaders, and human beings really, we're afraid to fail. When it happens, we tend to move forward from it and not look back. This is one method of seeing failure. Using your soul and spirit there is another way of seeing it. One must step back and try to find the lesson that the failure taught you. Too often do we miss these lessons and just go on. This is valuable experience lost. As said in the book "Honor the past. Celebrate the present. Look toward the future."



You learned from your failures...now keep moving forward!

One of the most interesting stories from this book was about a poor man who journeyed to Cairo. He has a dream once about an old man sitting on a bench with treasures and wealth behind him ready for it to be claimed. Years after the dream, the man found himself in Cairo looking at this old man. The man didn't have any treasure behind him but had the same dream an the poor man did years ago, just the night before. The moral of the story was that the treasure the man had been seeking couldn't be found in the physical sense, but in the mind. The mind created this dream from his heart: the core of his being.

"A dream is a wish your heart makes..."

I could write about this all day if I wanted too. I suggest this read!

Overall, here's how I felt about the book:
First of all my leadership style tries to put others before me in anyway. This book and I were a perfect match because it does talk about the importance of places others before yourself. In the quotations and stories above, I think those were some of the most important parts to me. You have to really open your eyes and be understanding. The book did change my leadership style too. Instead of being told "this is how you should lead", it say to feel how you should lead and become more careing. There is truly no "I" in team. You lead others. And these others are filled with a spirit and soul that drives them to be a part of what they are a part of. This same concept goes for yourself too. I also realized that it's ok to look back at mistakes and take a deep breath. You have to go with that feeling moving forward if you want to succeed. That was at least my interpretation of it. Thanks for reading :)

Hello! All throughout my high school year, I was priviledged to be apart of an organization called Global Scholars. This was an organization that had diplomats from all around the world come to a fancy-schmancy dinner at a nearby hotel and speak as well as interact with students in the district. The food was good and the conversation with the diplomats was great but something I really appriciated was the time we were able to get to know other students from different high schools. These dinners happened twice or three times a season so we all utilized our times together and got to know each other the best we could. By the end of our four year, I made some good friends too!

Alright, you now have the background. Now let's get to the nitty-gritty: working with Tuckman's stages.

FORMING
In short, it's like the Disney princess version of ourselves at the begginning of meeting your team. We all want acceptance right? So we turn on our charm and share those pearly whites while trying to not be too talky or loud or quiet or bashful. Then high-ho high-ho it's off to work everyone goes trying to get to know one another and the situations at hand. Some important things to add is that with forming, your supervisor is key for getting the groups where they need. Also, this is not to time to start conflict (this is NOT Jersey Shore). Tying in Global Scholars, we did this by having a mixer at each dinner and then we were able to formulate what each group had to say to the diplomats and such. We knew each other so we were able to form together better by this point. 

                                          STORMING

It's not a piece of cake. This is the brainstorming part of the group time. Like with every group, there will be different viewpoints about where to go and how to get there. There's no set way to do things so everyone needs to be accepting of there different views. Some groups don't necessarily get out of this stage easy. In Global Scholars, the task was handed to us so we knew what to do (create questions for the diplomat) but we still had to work things out on what to ask and who to ask. All in all I was lucky and didn't have any issues.

NORMING

There's a goal ready and set. All the team has to do to go go go and put it into action. With my groups, we all just worked together and everything turned out great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNunS0JozR0
The PowerRangers knew how to Norm and Perform!
PERFORMING
This is a team that got to the norming stage but with a 110%. They know each other and what everyone brings to the table. They utilize these skills and work perfectly with one another. Not many groups can boast this but actually a lot of my Global Scholars groups did...again lucky I know.

So basically, if each group setting you were in was a book, the four topics I just talked about would be the chapters!

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

-Margaret Mead

Hello!
After taking this one personality test, I found out some very interesting things about myself. My type is ESFJ which can be translated into Extraverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Judging. I found myself to be very extraverted which is very very different from how I thought I was in high school. In high school, I was very shy but college helps change that. I was basically pushed into situations where I had no choice but to get to know people (RUSHing for example). I also found myself to almost thrive off of my relationships with others. I also relate to my score dealing with feelings. I use feelings to direct how I should act. I have a pretty good moral compass and if I feel something isn't right, I will more than likely do something about that. Sensing also ties with this because I feel like I can get a sense of how people are. I can read people easily is what I'm really trying to get at. My last component surprised me because it was "judging" which I really tend not to do. I tend not to because I feel as if I have no right to do so...
In conclusion, the more that I learn about myself, the more interesting things become for me as I progress in my life!

Hello! You know leadership is one of those words that stimulates many different thoughts and feelings. Some of these thoughts and feeling are found in how you lead or view your own self. When it comes down to it, I think it takes a whole lot of yourself to know yourself. It's quite interesting because I never envisioned myself as a strong leader. More and more though, I hear "through the grapevine" (as the saying goes) of how great my leadership and accomplishments are progressing from friends and family. Those little boosts of compliments push me more and more to fill a leadership role and who knows? I could also be changing some lives for the better with that role as well!
How do I lead though?
 Currently, I have to be honest here, I'm still don't have an extremely clear view. While my leadership skills are still developing, I can give little insight on how I at least think I operate.

There's a word call empower. Taken directly fromt the dictionary, it says "to equip or supply with an ability". I put this word to action a lot. It doesn't matter if you're a leader of a big compnay or small student activity. Empowering others is what it's about (or at least should be about). If you're a leader or at least want to be a leader, you're making changes in people's lives. You leading them to greater things. Therefore, you need to be able to supply them what they need to get from poor to great. In this world today, there are too many examples of different people being put down for all sorts of reasons. I believe and follow just the opposite. I try to empower all the time. Empowering should be used through wisdom and strenth while using your team as just that...a team.

 Inclusfulness is another word that hits home. I'm a teenager and I know how it feels to be out of the loop. In any team, I run things by making sure everyone has each other's back. There are no enemies if everyone is always there for one another. To feel included is a great feeling that everyone needs to experience really.

There are some cases that I'll need help with.

Purposeful, ethics, and process. Three words that I'll need to work on for now...

Leading: Through Thick and Through Thin

The Youth and Community

The community that I'm associated with the most would be my youth group. We are small (only about 15-20 members) but we are vital in the congregation that we have. Each member comes from a different background and even different stages of their lives. We all have a common goal found in our faith but found respect and openness helps us all to get along. As a youth group, we always empower others to take a leadership role in different community organizations that we want to get involved with. We physically get involved in the community through numerous events and try to reach out by ways of actions (i.e. showing kindness and love to our neighbors and community). We always have meetings to decide on where to go, times and other logistics. During the meetings, we share feedback freely and really try to talk different issues out first. Overall, handle situations by thinking back to the youth group as a whole first and then think of what could really benefit the community. The best example of how we've introduced and implemented change would be just in the past year. Our church moved into a new building with more rooms in it than before. The youth introduced the idea to take over some of the rooms to the congregation and different changes resulting from this taking a stand.

A Better Outlook in Life
In describing my own sense of hope, optimism, and ability to build and strengthen others, I would say that first and foremost, I tend to see the good out of all situations. Throughout my life so far, I've found myself on both the "woe is me" side and the "what happens, happens" side. I quickly figured out that when your hope is lost and you feel your glass is empty, it really doesn't help any cause. It may even hurt it. When I say I have hope, I really mean it. My hope consists of never, ever giving up completely. There are always options in my opinion. I also feel like I'm very optomistic about events. In any case, good or bad, I try to put out the bigger picture and visualize it. That's how I stay optomistic the best. I can nurture hope and optimism by first showing it myself. If the leader is upbeat, the followers will be upbeat too. I can also try to have everyone take a step back and think about the positives first before rushing to conclusions. Optomism is always important in leadership because a team that never gives up won't back down either.

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by

people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

                                                                      Dale Carnegie