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!